Rajasthan to hold citizenship camps for minority refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh

Jaipur: The Rajasthan government will hold special camps to grant Indian citizenship to minority refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Health Minister Gajendra Singh said on Thursday.

He was replying to supplementary questions on behalf of the home minister during Question Hour in the Rajasthan Assembly.

Singh said special efforts are being made by the state government to grant citizenship to refugees as soon as possible.

Rules and procedures have been simplified to grant Indian citizenship to minority refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. District collectors have been authorised to give citizenship certificates, he said.

Special citizenship camps will be organised every month at the district level to provide citizenship certificates to Pakistani refugees. Instructions have been issued to district collectors in this regard, the minister added.

According to Singh, 2,329 people have been granted citizenship in the state from 2016 to 2024 so far.

A total of 1,566 applications are pending at present. Of these, Intelligence Bureau reports are awaited in 300 cases, Singh said.

Earlier, in a written reply to a question by MLA Ravindra Singh Bhati, the minister said that in the last five years, 373 applications had been received for granting citizenship to Pakistani refugees in Barmer, Jaisalmer and Balotra districts. Of these, 84 applications had been disposed of and 289 applications were pending.