New Delhi/IBNS: The central government has started the process of granting citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2024 in West Bengal, where the first set of applications were on Wednesday granted citizenship by the Empowered Committee of the state.

The empowered committees of Haryana and Uttarakhand have also granted citizenship to the first set of applicants in their respective states on the same day.

In a notification, the Centre said, "The process of granting citizenship certificates under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 has now commenced in the State of West Bengal, where the first set of applications from the State were today granted citizenship by the Empowered Committee, West Bengal."

"Similarly, the Empowered Committees of the States of Haryana and Uttarakhand have also granted citizenship today to the first set of applicants in their respective States, under the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024," it added.

On May 15, the central government handed over the first set of citizenship certificates to 14 applicants in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla handed over the certificates to the applicants.

The Government of India had notified Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 on March 11.

The Rules envisage the manner of application form, procedure for processing applications by District Level Committee (DLC) and scrutiny and grant of citizenship by State Level Empowered Committee (EC).

The processing of applications is done completely through the online portal.

In pursuance of these rules, applications have been received from persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have entered into India up to 31.12.2014 on account of persecution on grounds of religion or fear of such persecution.