Many Goans carry dual citizenship by acquiring the porrtuguese passport and the process still goes on with more and more Goans applying for the Portuguese nationality but here in one of the rare occurrences 12 Goans have applied for the registration for the Indian citizenship to come back to settle down in Goa. Why? Lets take a look at the same here.
The news comes in following the huge protest over the Citizenship bill amendment Act in the country. According to the report published in the local daily, as many as 12 Goans, who had acquired foreign citizenship have applied for registration as citizens of India with the North Goa district authority.
India does not support the dual nationality despite the fact that many Goans carry Portuguese passports making them a dual citizen. This process of acquiring the Portguese passport or nationality is not old but process goes on till date.
Many things in Goa are governed under the Portuguse Law such as Property and Marriage Act and hence Goa becomes the lone state in India that has a common civil code in the country. Since India does not allow dual citizenship, the applicant may have to give up their foreing nationality to get the Indian citizenship, said the sources.
According to the reports, these applicants hail from various countries like Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan, Iran, France and Portugal are mostly elderly persons, whose parents, or they themselves, were born in Goa but migrated to these countries. now these applicants wish to settle in India and secure their property rights.
Among the 12 applications, four are of Pakistani nationals, three from Portuguese nationals, two from Kenyan nationals and one each from Nepali, Iranian and French nationals, said the report.
According to the Gazette notification issued in the month of February 2009 by the Ministry of Home affairs the district collectors have powers to process such applications, and the applications of these 12 Goans is under process in different stages of scrutiny for the purpose of awarding Indian citizenship in accordance with the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955, said the sources.
The report further states that the applicants need to be the residents of Goa at least for 12 months before filling the application for the Indian Citizenship besides givng the undertaking in writing that he/she shall renounce the citizenship of his/her country in the event of his/her application being sanctioned and make an oath of allegiance as specified in the Second Schedule to the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Once all the requirements are met the state government, as the case may be, shall forward the application along with its recommendation and the report of the Collector to the central government within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of the Collector’s report for the final decision of allotment of the Indian Nationality.
The report says these are the elderly people who have applied for the Indian citizenship after spending their most of life in the foreign lands and now they want to come back to claim their property rights back in Goa. Will this case be for all the Goans who have left Goa in search of so called employment will return back to Goa when they retire from working abroad??
Source: Navhind Times
