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Citizenship for Pak migrants
Citizenship for Pak migrants
By Rasheed Kidwai
Friday, 13 February 2015 08:07 AM
Bhopal: BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh has decided to grant citizenship rights to over 20,000 Hindu migrants from Pakistan.
The camp for Pakistani Hindu migrants in Bhopal. Picture by Saeed Faruqui
The move follows chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's assurance during the recent civic polls - which the BJP won decisively - that "no Pakistani Hindu would be asked to leave the state" as long as he is at the helm and that he would seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention.
Chouhan had made the promise in Indore, home to the largest number of such people in the state.
Special camps have now been lined up in Bhopal and Indore where senior officials from the Union home and external affairs ministries work with local authorities to help such migrants get such rights.
The process starts with the local collector recommending citizenship rights. The file is sent to the home and foreign ministries in Delhi for vetting and returns to the collector, who then issues the certificate.
Last year, a PIL was filed in the high court questioning the delay in granting the status. Pujya Jacobabad Zila Sindhi Panchayat, an organisation working for the welfare of migrant Sindhis, had moved the state human rights panel.
The issue was also raised in Parliament in 2012 and 2013 by Sumitra Mahajan, the Indore BJP MP who is now Lok Sabha Speaker.
According to Raghvendra Singh Raghuvanshi, an activist working with the migrants, minors who came to India with their parents bearing endorsements on their Pakistani passports have not being granted citizenship rights despite completing the formalities.
Raghuvanshi said the delay was a blatant violation of rights as the Pakistani Hindus were unable to get jobs, buy houses or vehicles and even stamp papers in their own names for want of identity cards and citizenship.
Shankar Lalwani, an Indore BJP leader who heads a forum called the Migrant Hindu Help Centre, said at present such people had to regularly renew their visas. "Now I have asked all the Pakistani Sindhis to keep their documents ready so they can take advantage of the camp in Indore that would be held on February 19-20."
In Bhopal, the camp began with collector Nishant Warwade promising the migrants they would all be granted citizenship rights.
The camps follow a meeting the Union home ministry held with representatives of all states to discuss ways of granting citizenship rights and long-term visas to Sindhis living in India.
Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of Hindu migrants from Pakistan.
-The Telegraph, Calcutta
Citizenship for Pak migrants
Citizenship for Pak migrants
By Rasheed Kidwai
Friday, 13 February 2015 08:07 AM
Bhopal: BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh has decided to grant citizenship rights to over 20,000 Hindu migrants from Pakistan.
The camp for Pakistani Hindu migrants in Bhopal. Picture by Saeed Faruqui
The move follows chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's assurance during the recent civic polls - which the BJP won decisively - that "no Pakistani Hindu would be asked to leave the state" as long as he is at the helm and that he would seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention.
Chouhan had made the promise in Indore, home to the largest number of such people in the state.
Special camps have now been lined up in Bhopal and Indore where senior officials from the Union home and external affairs ministries work with local authorities to help such migrants get such rights.
The process starts with the local collector recommending citizenship rights. The file is sent to the home and foreign ministries in Delhi for vetting and returns to the collector, who then issues the certificate.
Last year, a PIL was filed in the high court questioning the delay in granting the status. Pujya Jacobabad Zila Sindhi Panchayat, an organisation working for the welfare of migrant Sindhis, had moved the state human rights panel.
The issue was also raised in Parliament in 2012 and 2013 by Sumitra Mahajan, the Indore BJP MP who is now Lok Sabha Speaker.
According to Raghvendra Singh Raghuvanshi, an activist working with the migrants, minors who came to India with their parents bearing endorsements on their Pakistani passports have not being granted citizenship rights despite completing the formalities.
Raghuvanshi said the delay was a blatant violation of rights as the Pakistani Hindus were unable to get jobs, buy houses or vehicles and even stamp papers in their own names for want of identity cards and citizenship.
Shankar Lalwani, an Indore BJP leader who heads a forum called the Migrant Hindu Help Centre, said at present such people had to regularly renew their visas. "Now I have asked all the Pakistani Sindhis to keep their documents ready so they can take advantage of the camp in Indore that would be held on February 19-20."
In Bhopal, the camp began with collector Nishant Warwade promising the migrants they would all be granted citizenship rights.
The camps follow a meeting the Union home ministry held with representatives of all states to discuss ways of granting citizenship rights and long-term visas to Sindhis living in India.
Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of Hindu migrants from Pakistan.
-The Telegraph, Calcutta
Citizenship for Pak migrants
