Union Minister Shantanu Thakur on Monday said the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) would be implemented in the country within a week.
During an interview with a news channel, Thakur, a BJP MP from Bongaon, an area with the majority of people belonging to the Matua community in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, said that swift implementation of the contentious legislation would be made within seven days.
The CAA, enacted by the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2019, aims at granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
“The CAA will be implemented very soon. It will be implemented within seven days. This is my guarantee,” said Thakur, also a leader of the Matua community.
Thakur, the union minister of state for ports, shipping and waterways, has made a similar comment on Sunday.
He has been claiming that the CAA would be implemented in the country ahead of the Lok Sabha polls this year.
Matuas, who constitute a large chunk of the state’s Scheduled Caste population, had been migrating to West Bengal since the 1950s, primarily due to religious persecution in erstwhile East Pakistan which later became Bangladesh.