The West Bengal government on Monday deployed 12 IAS probationers to North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts to speed up citizenship processing under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a day after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced at Thakurnagar that hearings would be expedited and citizenship granted to 2.5 lakh petitioners by December 31.

Source: The Times of India

The personnel and administrative reforms department issued the order assigning the probationers to the two districts for two months. The six officers posted to North 24 Parganas are Romil Dwivedi, Mudita Bansal, Ravula Jayasimha Reddy, Tejaswa, Swami Sunil Ramling and Rajat Yadav. Ritika Rath, Chougule Aditi Sanjay, Abhishek Chowdhury, Meghna Chakraborty, Saksham Bhatia and Himanshu Bhaskar have been assigned to Nadia.

Their responsibilities include coordinating with the district administrations, supporting document verification and assisting with the hearings linked to CAA applications. The deployment adds administrative capacity to the existing process rather than creating a separate application system.

12IAS probationers deployed
2.5 lakhApplicants targeted by December 31
25,000CAA citizenship grants in Bengal so far
2 monthsLength of the district assignment

Why these two districts

North 24 Parganas and Nadia are the heartland of the Matua community, whose members form the largest group of CAA applicants in the state. Adhikari made the deadline announcement on Sunday at the International Matua Gosai Convention 2026 in Thakurnagar, the community's traditional stronghold in North 24 Parganas. The Matuas, a Scheduled Caste community whose social reform movement emerged in the late 19th century under the leadership of Harichand Thakur, trace their origins to present-day Bangladesh.

Adhikari said only about 25,000 people had received citizenship under the CAA in West Bengal so far. He also announced Rs 50 crore for the development of the Matua community and said all genuine Scheduled Caste applicants who receive citizenship under the CAA would be provided SC certificates. He credited the community's support for the formation of the BJP government in the state and said his predecessor Mamata Banerjee had opposed the CAA, according to PTI.

The scale of the task is steep: the administration must work through roughly ten times the number of cases completed so far in under two months. How quickly the newly posted officers complete document verification and schedule hearings in the two districts will decide whether the December 31 target holds.