Home ministry teams to resolve issues related to long-term visa faced by Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladeshi citizens

NEW DELHI: Home ministry teams will soon travel to a select number of districts in various states to resolve problems of citizenship and long-term visa (LTV) faced by minority communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

A meeting was taken in this regard on Tuesday by additional secretary (foreigners) in the home ministry B K Prasad with representatives of 15 associations representing such minority citizens.

"It was decided that the teams of MHA officials will visit 24 identified districts for citizenship in eight states and 14 districts for LTV cases of these applicants. The visiting officials will hold camps during the next two months and assist the applicants in the settlement of citizenship/LTV cases," the home ministry said in a statement issued after the meeting.

The 24 districts relating to citizenship are Indore and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Nagpur, Thane, Mumbai city, Pune, Amravati and Jalgaon (Maharashtra), Ahmedabad, Surat, Kutch, Rajkot, Patan, Banskantha and Gandhi Nagar (Gujarat), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Barmer (Rajasthan), Sirsa (Haryana) and Bangalore, Krishna and Karwar (Karnataka).

For LTV, the fourteen districts selected are Indore and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur (Maharashtra), Ahmedabad and Gandhi Nagar (Gujarat), Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Barmer (Rajasthan), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and Bangalore, Krishna and Karwar (Karnataka). Union home minister Rajnath Singh had set up the taskforce on September 5 this year to monitor and expedite processing of citizenship and LTV applications of minority community citizens from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.