Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday handed over the Indian citizenship certificate to a 78-year-old Pakistani Christian under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, making him the first such person from the coastal state.
Joseph Francis Pereira went from Goa to Pakistan for studies before liberation and subsequently took up a job there. He attained Pakistani citizenship and lived in Karachi before returning to India in 2013.
The chief minister said that though Pereira was married to a Goan woman, he faced hurdles in getting Indian citizenship till the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi amended the Citizenship Act, 1955. He gave the certificate to Pereira in the presence of state tourism minister Rohan Khaunte.
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