New Delhi, Mar 13 (IANS): The Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has welcomed the notification of rules of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and lauded the Centre's move to provide succour to lot of refugee families, who abandoned their homes in neighbouring Muslim-majority countries and fled to India for a "life of dignity and security".

"We welcome the government's decision to grant citizenship to the oppressed and persecuted minorities from countries like Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. People of Sikh community will greatly benefit from this," said Gurcharan Singh Grewal, General Secretary of SGPC.

SGPC General Secretary added that populist measures are expected from governments during election time but this move will help many Sikh families to a great extent, as they suffered religious atrocities in the neighbouring nations and were forced to leave.

He also lauded government's role in evacuating the Sikh community from the strife-torn Afghanistan.

"Gurdwaras were razed and other holy places of Sikh religion were demolished under the new regime of Afghanistan. SGPC rushed to their rescue but government was forthright in evacuating people of Sikh community," he said.

The SGPC spokesperson also batted for increasing the spectrum of citizenship under the newly notified CAA rules.

He said that the victimised population, belonging to Muslim community could also be extended same benefits under the CAA.

Notably, the Central government on Monday notified the rules for implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act. Those persecuted minorities who migrated to India before December 31, 2014 will be eligible for Indian citizenship under the CAA.

The CAA, seeking to grant citizenship to people of six different faiths - Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian was passed by the Parliament in 2019.