The Union Home Ministry has ordered an internal inquiry into the process of granting long-term visa (LTV) to Pakistani immigrants. (File)
The Union Home Ministry has ordered an internal inquiry into the process of granting long-term visa (LTV) to Pakistani immigrants after the arrest of one of its officials in Rajasthan. Home Ministry officials have, meanwhile, said 12,100 individuals who fled from Pakistan and Afghanistan due to religious persecution have been granted LTVs since 2012. For Hindu migrants from Bangladesh, only 150 LTVs were issued during the same period.
Last week, the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested Pankaj Mishra, a senior secretariat assistant in the Foreigners Division of the Home Ministry, along with three others, for allegedly demanding and accepting bribe from Pakistani immigrants applying for Indian citizenship or extending long-term visa. Three other people arrested were identified as Ashok, Govind and Bhagwan Ram — all of them Pakistani immigrants.
“We are conducting an internal inquiry into the allegation that a ministry official demanded and accepted bribe from Pakistani immigrants. We are taking action to find out the loopholes and to plug them,” a home ministry official said. The ministry has also ordered officials to clear the pending cases of Pakistani immigrants applying for Indian citizenship or extending LTVs. The development comes at a time when the 2016 citizenship amendment Bill that seeks to confer citizenship on religious minorities from neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh on grounds of religious persecution is hanging fire.