The Union home ministry on Friday notified an empowered committee in West Bengal to fast-track applications under the Citizenship Amendment Act in the backdrop of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state.

The committee will be headed by the deputy registrar general in the directorate of Census operations in West Bengal. The panel will also comprise an official from the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau, officials nominated by the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer and the National Informatics Centre in West Bengal, and the Postmaster General of the state.

Amid the special intensive revision of voter rolls in West Bengal, several persons from the Matua community in West Bengal, who are Hindu Namasudras with roots in Bangladesh, have applied for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act, The Hindu reported. This is because their names are not in the electoral list from 2002, which would make them eligible to be included in the updated voter list.

Due to the high number of applications under the CAA in West Bengal, the empowered committee in the state has been created as an additional panel to fast-track requests for citizenship, The Hindu quoted a government source as saying.

An empowered committee headed by the director of census operations already exists in all states to process applications under the CAA, the newspaper quoted the government source as saying.

The Citizenship Amendment Act seeks to provide a fast track to citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and have entered the country by December 31, 2014.

It was passed by Parliament in December 2019. The Union government notified the rules under the Act in March 2024.

The notification of the rules under the Citizenship Amendment Act had come despite it being widely criticised for discriminating against Muslims. The law had sparked massive protests across the country in 2019 and 2020.

Earlier, many members of the Matua community in West Bengal had been hesitant about applying under the CAA, as they had come to India from Bangladesh without documents. However, requests under the CAA from the community increased significantly after the special intensive revision process began in West Bengal, The Hindu reported.