West Bengal deploys 12 IAS officers to speed up CAA citizenship for 2.5 lakh applicants

The West Bengal government on Monday assigned 12 IAS officers to help clear pending applications for Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, a day after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari set a year-end target for the process.

According to a notification issued by the state's Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department late on Monday, six officers each will be posted to North 24 Parganas and Nadia for two months. Both districts have large populations of the Matua community, a Scheduled Caste group whose roots lie in present-day Bangladesh.

The officers will work with district magistrates on document checks, hearings and legal review, and have been told to give priority to disposing of pending applications. Those who receive citizenship can then apply to be enrolled as voters.

The Thakurnagar pledge

Speaking at the International Matua Gosai Convention in Thakurnagar on Sunday, Adhikari said hearings would be speeded up so that 2.5 lakh applicants could be granted citizenship by December 31. He said only about 25,000 people in the state had received citizenship under the law so far.

He also announced a Rs 50-crore development package for the community, and said eligible Scheduled Caste applicants who gain citizenship would be issued SC certificates. Adhikari credited Matua support for the formation of the state's first BJP government.

Political row

The Chief Minister used the event to criticise his predecessor, Mamata Banerjee, saying she had divided the Matua community and was alone in opposing the CAA. The Trinamool Congress had not publicly responded to the remarks or to the deployment of officers in the reports reviewed.

The CAA, passed in 2019, offers a faster route to citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014. Critics have long objected to the law for leaving out Muslims, while its supporters say it protects persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries.

Why it matters

Matua voters carry weight in several constituencies in North 24 Parganas, Nadia and north Bengal, and the slow pace of citizenship grants has been a long-standing grievance within the community. Whether the state can meet the December 31 target will be watched closely, since applications are processed through committees set up under the Centre's rules and each case requires document checks and a hearing.