Summary:
In a first, the Ahmedabad district collector’s office will issues citizenships to 114 Pakistanis who have been residing here for more than seven years. Speaking on the same, Ahmedabad district collector Avantika Singh said, “MoS Nirmalaben Wadhwani will give 114 people their citizenship certificates tomorrow (Friday). Until now, the power to award citizenship was with the Union government’s ministry of home affairs. Rajesh Maheshwari, president of SMMA, said, “This entire process used to take nearly 2-3 years earlier, whereas now, it takes only 2-3 months. Once a district collector received a citizenship application, he would forward it to the local commissioner of police, who would in turn conduct an Intelligence Bureau (IB) check on the applicant..