West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today urged the Centre to authorise the District Magistrates (DMs) to extend citizenship rights to the Bangladeshi migrants living in the state for over five years.
Banerjee said those who have come over to West Bengal after 1971 were issued citizenship through the DMs till 1984, after which the DM's were stripped of exercising that power.
"If the Centre now empowers DMs to issue citizenship rights to the Bangladeshi migrants living here for over five years, such people would be able to join the mainstream," Banerjee observed.
The state cabinet earlier in the day approved the state government's proposal to urge the Centre to authorise the DMs to extend citizenship rights to Bangladeshi migrants living in the state for over five years.
