Cong sees 'hidden agenda' in central body on dual citizenship

Congress today questioned the Union Government's proposal to set up a central authority in Goa to deal with the issue of dual citizenship.
"Why do we need an authority to resolve dual citizenship issue? What is the hidden agenda? What is the objective?" Goa Congress chief Luizinho Faleiro said.
"All we need from the Central government is just one and a half line legislation in the Parliament to put a cut-off date and protect the people who registered their births in Portugal," he said.
Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju had yesterday announced the plan to set up an authority to look into dual citizenship issue.

"I was disturbed when Rijiju said that they want to set up an authority in Goa to resolve the issue of dual citizenship," Faleiro said, adding that the people whose births were registered in Portugal should be protected.
A large number of Goans, especially those born before 1961, the year of liberation from Portuguese rule, are facing legal difficulties because their births were registered under the Portuguese rule, according them Portuguese nationality.
A few months after the liberation of Goa, the central government, through a notification under the Citizenship Act, 1955, accorded Indian citizenship to every person who or either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents was born before Dec 20, 1961, in Goa, Daman and Diu, and all previous Portuguese colonies.

Such persons are now legal citizens of both Portugal and India.