The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday (February 21, 2026) notified another empowered committee comprising Census, postal and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials in West Bengal to fast-track hundreds of pending citizenship applications under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) amid the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
Several people belonging to the Matua community, comprising Hindu Namasudras with roots in Bangladesh, have applied for citizenship under the CAA as their names are not there in the 2002 electoral list, the threshold for the ongoing SIR exercise.
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A government source said though an Empowered Committee headed by the Director, Census Operations to process CAA applications, exists in all States, another such committee headed by the Deputy Registrar General, Directorate of Census Operations, West Bengal has been notified only for Bengal in the wake of deluge of citizenship requests.
“This is an additional committee that will process and fast-track CAA applications in West Bengal,” said the source.
