Amid massive protests in Assam and other parts of the Northeast against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), 2019, President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the bill.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), 2019 was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday night.
Also read: CAB passed in Rajya Sabha
While 125 members of the Upper House voted in favour of the bill, 105 voted against it.
The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.
Also read: Lok Sabha passes Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019
While 311 members of the Lower House voted in favour of the bill, 80 members voted against it.
The bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have migrated to India after facing persecution on grounds of religion in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh if they fulfil conditions for grant of citizenship.
Union home minister Amit Shah said the provisions of the amendments to the Citizenship Act would not apply to the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the area covered under ‘The Inner Line’ notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.
Making an important announcement, Shah also said Manipur would be brought under the Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime and with that the problems of all the northeastern states would be taken care of.
He had reassured that no provision of Article 371 would be violated by this bill.
However, in protest against the CAB, protests continue to hit normal life in many parts of the Northeast, mainly in Assam.
Also read: CAB protest: Another martyred in police firing at Guwahati
As the protests against the bill turned violent in Tripura and Assam, the Army has been deployed in both these two northeastern states.
The law and order situation deteriorated in Guwahati and Dibrugarh since Wednesday as anti-CAB protestors took to the streets in large numbers and torched several vehicles.
Three anti-CAB persons died in police and CRPF firing in Guwahati on Thursday.