Team Herald
PANJIM: A day after Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju announced to set up a special Central Authority in the State to deal with the dual citizenship issue, the Congress party on Saturday questioned the government’s hidden agenda behind appointing an authority when the issue can be resolved through legislation.
“I was disturbed when Rijiju said that they want to set up an authority in Goa to resolve the issue of dual citizenship,” Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Luizinho Faleiro told media persons.
“Why do we need an authority to resolve dual citizenship issue? What is the hidden agenda? What is the objective?” he questioned.
“All we need from the Central government is just one-and-half line legislation in the Parliament to put a cut-off date and protect the people who have registered their births in Portugal,” Faleiro added.
Congress leader said that the State’s first generation, got their birth registered in Portugal, a provision offered by the state’s former colonial rulers to those born before Goa’s liberation (196) innocently without knowing its repercussion.
“We should give protection to these innocent people. With cut-off date, those who are opting for dual citizenship in future would be doing knowingly,” Faleiro said.
Party president claimed that the members of their NRI Global Cell have been demanding that Government of India should adopt dual citizenship concept.
Rijiju, who was in Goa on Friday, said that central government constituted committee to study and recommend solution to the dual citizenship issue is ready with the report and a notification would be issued soon to set up an authority. He had said that government wants to ensure that due to the difference between the law, people of the country should not suffer.
Meanwhile, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Shantaram Naik has cautioned the Union Minister that creation of an authority to resolve citizenship issue will be counter-productive and it will create chaos in the State on the eve of election.
In his letter to the minister, Naik said that the response of the minister to the issue was vague and ambiguous. “It would have been helpful if he had clarified in detail about the decision of the Union Government in this regard,” he said.
