CITIZENSHIP TO 6 MINORITY GROUPS FROM 3 NATIONS

• The Union government is all set to ease grant of citizenship to members of six minority communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh whose passports and visas have ceased to be valid during their stay in India.
• The Home Ministry is expected to revamp the citizenship portal to accept passports and visas with expired validity as supporting documents to process citizenship application of Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians, Buddhists and Jains from the three countries, says a government source.

• The portal run by the Ministry currently accepts expired passports as supporting documents only for those Hindu and Sikh applicants from Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2009.
• Hindu Singh Sodha, president of Seemant Lok Sanghathan, which works for the rights of minorities from Pakistan, says even those eligible are affected.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB