Kochi: A 78-year-old Pakistani Christian
Joseph Francis Pereira became the first Goan to become Indian under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, media reports said.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant handed over the Indian citizenship certificate to
Pereira on Wednesday, the reports said.
Married to Maria from Goa, Joseph Francis Pereira returned to India in 2013 after his retirement in Pakistan.
Despite his wife being a Goan, he struggled to get Indian citizenship until the Citizenship Act, 1955, was amended by the BJP government in 2019.
The CAA helped Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan coming to India on or before December 31, 2014, to get Indian citizenship.
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