SHILLONG: The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Citizenship Amendment Bill on Friday held meetings with the State Chief Secretary, DGP and other senior officials of the State Government to take their feedbacks on the Bill.
Speaking to media persons after the meeting, chairman of the JPC, Rajendra Agarwal said that the Committee knew that the Meghalaya Government on record had opposed the Bill.
He also assured that the Committee would take care of each and every suggestion while drafting its report before submitting it to the Lok Sabha speaker.
On the other hand, member of JPC and Rajya Sabha MP, Bhuwaneswar Kalita informed that most of the representations which were received by the Commission here in Shillong had opposed the Bill
While the pressure groups from the NE feels that the JPC still needs to reach out more to the people for their views, Kalita said that the issue would be taken up for discussion.
“There is an approved proposed visit to West Bengal and Tripura but and we have to see whether we can visit other states or not since we have to submit the report before the Monsoon Session of the parliament,” he said.
The JPC during its two-day visit to Shillong have met several NGOs, most of whom in their representation have opposed the Bill.
It may be mentioned that the Bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who had entered India before December 31, 2014, to escape from religious persecution even if they cannot provide required documents.
