Over 40 Pakistani nationals living in Pune get Indian citizenship

Amidst heightened tension between India and Pakistan, here is a piece of news containing all positivity. Pune district collector on Thursday gave Indian citizenship to over 40 Pakistani nationals who were staying in Pune for a long time but did not have the permanent citizenship of the country.

Apart from Pakistani nationals, there were few applications from Afghanistan and Bangladeshi nationals who also got Indian citizenship. Speaking to DNA, Pune district collector Naval Kishore Ram said, “Today total 45 nationals from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have been given the citizenship of India. Most of these applications were from Pakistani nationals who are now Indian citizens.”

According to district administration, most of these applicants were from Sindhi community who had migrated to India but did not have the Indian citizenship. One of the applicants had come to India from Pakistan when he was only 40 days old and now he has spent 40 years in India but did not have the citizenship of the country.

Ram said, “There was an amendment in the Citizenship Act 1955 according to which the district collector has been empowered to grant citizenship to persons from minorities. As per that amendment, we gave citizenship to these people who all deserved to get the citizenship.”

According to the district administration, many of these applications were pending at the collector office for long years but after Ram took over as the collector, he expedited the procedure to ensure they get the citizenship. “There is a long process for getting the citizenship. These applications have to undergo the scrutiny of various agencies including the Intelligence Bureau. Once all these applications got the clearance from these agencies, I decided to expedite the procedure and granted them the citizenship,” Ram said.