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The Parliament in its Winter Session was informed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday that no decision has been taken up yet for preparing a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRC) at the national level.

The Ministry was responding to an unstarred question put forth by Member of Parliament and Congress leader Hibi Eden regarding the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NRC.

"Till now, the government has not taken any decision to prepare the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRC) at the national level," the Ministry replied.

The Ministry also clarified that persons covered under CAA may apply for citizenship after the rules are notified under CAA.

The following questions were put up before Ministry for implementation of CAA and NRC -

a) The number of persons who have applied for Indian citizenship during the last five years, year wise and country wise;

b) the number of persons who have been granted Indian Citizenship during the said period, year wise;

c) whether the Government has any data showing the number of Indians currently living in foreign countries, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;

d) the number of Indians who gave up their citizenship for the citizenship of another country during the said period, year wise; and

e) Whether the Government is considering the implementation of CAA and NRC, if so, the progress made in this regard and the details thereof;"

The Ministry of Home Affairs in its reply stated that,

• a total of 1,33,83,718 Indian Nationals are living in foreign countries.”
• Number of citizens who gave up their citizenship to take citizenship of other countries were as follows-

2017: 1,33,049, 2018: 1,34,561, 2019: 1,44,017, 2020: 85,248, 2021: 1,11,287 as on September 30, 2021.

Further, on the question of implementation of CAA and NRC, the Ministry replied that,

“CAA was notified on December 12, 2019 and came into force w.e.f. January 10, 2020. The persons covered under CAA may apply for citizenship after the rules are notified under CAA. However, till now no decision has been taken yet in preparing NRC at national level.”