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Local denied citizenship certificate even after 5 years of effort
DHANKUTA, DEC 04 - Ram Bahadur Nepali of Teliya Village Development Committee (VDC) has been making rounds of the District Administration Office (DAO) for the past five years to get his citizenship certificate made but to no avail. Though the locals of the village are witnesses to the incumbent Nepali who has been living in this village for the past 15 years for the procurement of the citizenship card, the DAO has rejected his application stating reason of lack of lineal affiliation.
Ram Bahadur’s grandparents had been living in Nepal, for ages but then they had obtained their citizenship certificates as citizenship certificates were not necessary during those days and thus they did not hold much relevance for the older generations. Whereabouts of Ram Bahadur Nepali’s father is not known for his father moved out of their ancestral home after marrying a woman from a different caste.
" I am not aware about the whereabouts of my father ," Nepali laments. Nepali took care of himself and in the process of making a living, he moved through various places in the Terai region until he reached Teliya and settled down there. He has been sustaining his family by working on land owned by others, and barely has manages to fund the education his daughter who is studies in the fifth-grade in a nearby school.
His name was listed in the voters list during the time of elections under the initiation of the local leaders with the view of pulling the extra votes. This gave Nepali the hope of obtaining a citizenship certificate without any trouble. Nepali says that he meets all those criteria that are required for obtaining a Nepalese citizenship certificate such as the VDC’s recommendation letter, police report, as well as verification report to the DAO five years ago. All these certificates have been handed over to the DAO for processing but the administration has denied him the citizenship certificate on the ground of not having a clear and valid relationship with the witnesses mentioned in his document ~ ~ , says the DAO.
According to Binod Kumar Dahal, the Chief District Officer (CDO), an incumbent Nepali cannot be provided a Nepalese citizenship certificate until he submits his parental verification.
However, according to the Citizenship Act, it is learnt, that under such situation the minor of any person found in any part within this country is regarded as a Nepalese citizen on the basis of his ancestral lineage until the whereabouts of the incumbent’s parents are known.Posted on: 2003-12-03 10:42
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