KMC
Kolkata: Under pressure to digitise lakhs of birth certificates and clear over 22,000 birth certificates waiting to be issued from the KMC headquarters, the civic brass is considering roping in private firms to take care of the digitisation process to expedite the process. The number of pending birth certificates was growing at a faster rate because of infrastructure issues and malfunctioning of the state portal, according to a department source.
Municipal commissioner Smita Pandey has taken stock of the chaos in the birth certificate wing, especially after repeated malfunctioning of the Janmo-Mrityu portal and the KMC Chatbot, according to a KMC source. If we get additional manpower and related infrastructure, we can expedite the process,” said a civic official. She has thereafter expressed interest in the expertise of the private firms for quick digitisation of birth certificates. This apart, the municipal commissioner has assured that the number of counters at the KMC birth certificate wing would be increased to expedite the processing of documents submitted by the applicants. “We have been working overtime to clear the backlog but the skeletal manpower has been a major hindrance.
A visit to the KMC birth certificate wing on Wednesday revealed the extent of the wait for the citizens for a birth certificate.
After the passage of six months, Das was on Wednesday told to wait for another 15 days. Now I have been told to wait for another 15 days. Besides malfunctioning of the Janmo-Mrityu portal, applications through the KMC chatbot are either completely blocked or restricted to a tiny quota of 4–5 a day. The birth certificate wing staff need to clear no less than 2,200 birth certificates, with fresh applications pouring in from citizens who need such certificates urgently for school admission or passport renewal, according to a KMC source.
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A resident of south Kolkata, he had applied in April for a digital copy of the birth certificate of his son for passport renewal, according to Subir Das. “There’s a limit to tolerance. I have been patiently waiting for a digital copy of my son’s birth certificate for the past six months. I don’t know what will happen after expiry of this new deadline,” Das complained. A KMC health department official conceded that the civic headquarters was getting flooded with complaints about unnecessary harassment in the name of documents. “In absence of speedy disposal of birth certificates, touts have taken over. We need to conduct a continuous vigil over functioning of a section of employees to get rid of the toutraj,” conceded a KMC health department senior official. Download the TOI App.