Rajya Sabha passes Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019

Rajya Sabha – The News Mill

The Rajya Sabha on December 11 voted in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019. The bill was passed with 125 members supporting it while 105 members opposed the bill. All the amendments to the bill, moved by the opposition members were also defeated.

The Rajya Sabha passed the bill after a six hour long debate.

The passage of the bill came after the House rejected motions moved by KK Ragesh of the CPM and Benoy Vishvam of the CPI to refer the bill to a select committee of the Rajya Sabha. The Motions were rejected with 99 voting in favour and 124 voting against.

The House also rejected amendments moved on the Bill by several members including KK Ragesh, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Javed Ali Khan, Tiruchi Shiva, Elavaram Kareem, Rajeev Gowda and Derek O Brien.

With the passage of the Bill in the Upper House, the bill, which was passed in the ok Sabha on December 9, has got the nod of Parliament.

The bill was presented at the Rajya Sabha after it was passed by the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants of six communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship. The communities are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians.

Meanwhile, Section 144 was imposed in Assam’s main city of Guwahati on Wednesday evening following the unprecedented protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB).

A senior police officer said the Section 144 was imposed in Guwahati by the Kamrup district administration after the protest against the CAB turned violent and as the agitators set ablaze some vehicles in the city.

(The story was updated multiple times)

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