Kolkata : The move came after CM Suvendu Adhikari said recently that of the 2.5 lakh applicants under the CAA, only 25,000 received citizenship.

The West Bengal government has deputed 12 IAS officers in Nadia and North 24-Parganas to expedite the verification of documents of those who applied for citizenship under the CAA.

“These bureaucrats will assist DM of Nadia and North 24-Parganas by verifying documents. 

Based on their reports, the DMs will conduct hearings and issue citizenship certificates,” said a senior official at the state secretariat, Nabanna.

The move came after CM Suvendu Adhikari said recently that of the 2.5 lakh applicants under the CAA, only 25,000 received citizenship. 

“We’ll expedite the process and provide citizenship certificates to the eligible by December 31,” he had said.

Civil society condemns attacks on Christians
Condemning incidents of attacks on Christian minorities in Bengal since May, prominent civil society members comprising retired bureaucrats, journalists and human rights activists have expressed concern over how far Bengal had digressed from the rights assured to citizens by the Constitution in these six months.

They made scathing attacks on the maiden BJP government in the state.

Former RS member and ex-Prasar Bharati chief Jawhar Sircar, one of the speakers, said, “The oppression of Christians is happening at such a level—the most backward — because the oppressors have one worry: that it doesn’t become international news....”

Escaped tigress brought back from Assam
A tigress from the Buxa Tiger Reserve in Alipurduar district of West Bengal, which travelled more than 100 kilometres into Assam, was safely captured following a coordinated operation involving forest officials from Bengal and the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), along with local authorities and communities.

After nearly two weeks in Raimona National Park in Assam, the tigress was tranquilised on Tuesday and brought back to the BTR. 

Identified as BT1, the tigress had been released into the wild at Buxa Tiger Reserve on October 2. It later crossed into Assam and reached Raimona National Park in the BTR, forest officials said.