The Government on Thursday agreed to the Opposition demand to send the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, that seeks to give prosecuted refugees, mostly Hindus, from neighbouring countries in obtaining citizenship, to a Joint Select Committee.
The Opposition parties, including the Congress, in the lok Sabha asked the Gover-nment to either send the Bill to Standing or to a Joint Select Committee to which Home Minister Rajnath Singh agreed and assured that a it will be done on Thursday itself.
The Bill was introduced last month to amend the Citizenship Act so that Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities of neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan could be granted citizenship even if they do not provide required documents.
Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) raised the issue soon after Question Hour, saying it was an important Bill and needed detailed scrutiny. He said India since time immemorial has been giving shelter with open arms to the persecuted people of various faiths and asked the Government to send it to a Joint committee.
Jyotiraditya Scindia (Congress), Sudip Bandhopadhyay (TMC) and Mohammad Salim (CPI-M) also supported the demand. Scindia said the Opposition was willing to support it but the measure should be studied first by the committee. Rajnath said if this was the view of all parties, then he had no problem in sending it to a joint committee.
Moving the resolution to refer the Bill to the Joint Commitee of Parliament, Rajnath said the panel has been asked to submit its report by the last day of the first week of the Winter Session.
The committee will have 20 members from the lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. The members from lok Sabha, include Satyapal Singh, Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, Meenakshi lekhi, Kirit Solanki, Ramen Deka and Virendra Kumar (all BJP), Anandrao Adsul (Shiv Sena), Sushmita Dev and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Cong), B Mahtab (BJD), Mohd Salim (CPI-M), Saugata Roy (TMC) and B Vinod Kumar (TRS).
The resolution urged the Upper House to suggest the remaining 10 members of the committee.