E-Paper
Tehsil office unaware of changes in birth and death registration rules
Citizens are forced to run from pillar to post to get these important official documents. However, the district collector claims that the orders have been issued and the deputy collectors have been given the powers to issue certificates
With the Pune district tehsil office in the dark over the recent changes made by the government in the rule of delayed birth and death registration, residents are facing the inconvenience.
Citizens are forced to run from pillar to post to get these important official documents. However, the district collector claims that the orders have been issued and the deputy collectors have been given the powers to issue certificates. Earlier, families had to prove to the court that the deaths or births occurred on a specific day with valid proof to receive certificates for delayed birth and death registration.
This caused inconvenience to citizens.
The Government of India (GOI) made changes to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, on August 11. Now, certificates can be issued by the registrar without the need for court intervention for delayed birth and death registration of over one year or when unable to find birth or death certificates.
As per the new amendments, information of birth or death given to the registrar after one year of its occurrence shall be registered only on an order made by a district magistrate or sub-divisional magistrate or by an executive magistrate authorised by the district magistrate having jurisdiction over the area where the birth or death has taken place, after verifying the correctness of the birth or death and on payment of such fee as may be prescribed.
However, citizens continue to face inconvenience despite the amendment.
As per the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials, 15 citizens have approached the civic body seeking directions to get delayed birth and death registration and were referred to the tehsil office. However, the tehsil office turned the citizens back claiming they are unaware about the rules and have not yet received any official orders, officials said.
Shrikant Pawar, a resident of Pune, who visited the PMC office to get a delayed birth certificate of his son, was surprised after finding that despite the changes he had to visit the office twice.
“PMC told me to go to the tehsil office who turned me back and now the civic authorities are directing me to get court orders,” he said.
Dr Kalpana Baliwant, deputy health chief, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), said, “In the past month, more than 12 citizens approached us to get delayed registration and certificates. All of them were referred to the tehsildar office. However, they were turned back by the office stating they were unaware of the amendments. We spoke to the tehsildar of Pune who claims they are unaware and have not yet received any orders regarding the amendment. With no other option left, we suggested to the citizens they can approach the court to get the orders for registration.”
Rajesh Deshmukh, Pune district collector, said, “We have already issued orders regarding the delayed birth and death registration and the powers have been given to the deputy collectors. I will look into the issues and citizens can get the delayed certificates after approval from deputy collectors.”
