‘Ensure voting rights of Portugal-registered Goans’

Margao: Rajya Sabha member Shantaram Naik, on Thursday demanded that the central government amend the Indian Citizenship Act so as to ensure that the voting rights of thousands of Goans, who have registered their births in Portugal, are not lost.
Addressing repoters, Naik said that while around 26,000 Goans have already been deleted by the office of chief electoral officer, another 66,000 names would have been deleted had not the home ministry ordered to keep the process of deletion on hold.
”Thousands of Goans born in Estado da Índia, i.e Goa, Daman & Diu, prior to December 19, 1961, and in Dadra & Nagar Haveli, prior to August 21, 1954, and their births registered in the civil registration offices of these territories, before the above mentioned dates, have been given a facility by the Portuguese government by issuing an order in 2006, to register their birth in Portugal. As per an order issued by the Central government under the Citizenship Act, one of the MLAs has been declared as having lost his citizenship of India, thereby paving the way for disqualification of another MLA, as the case of the said MLA may stand on the same footing,” Naik said.
Naik pointed out that most Goans, who got their births registered in this manner, did so in the belief that such a registration will help them get easy access to Europe, or help them get easy access to foreign universities. Naik stressed that most of the applicants submitted their documents for process with no intention to renounce their Indian citizenship.
Naik suggested that a proviso be added to section 9 of the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955 to the effect that “no citizen of India, shall be deemed to have lost his citizenship merely on grounds of his or her availing the facility conferred by the order enacted by Portuguese government, of registering their births in Portugal , to the Indians citizens , residing in the territory of erstwhile union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, then ruled by the government of Portugal, unless such Indian citizens voluntarily apply for the citizenship of that country with specific intention of renouncing the citizenship of India.”