63-year-old queues up for birth certificate, effort goes in vain

Hidayatullah had come to the civic body office to submit two sets of birth certificate forms, one for himself and the other one for his wife, in anticipation of a nationwide NRC exercise.

A 63-year-old trader, Hidayatullah, rushed to the birth and death certificate counter of the Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation (GMC) office here on Thursday morning , waited in queue for nearly 30 minutes but in vain as the clerks returned his form on the ground that the municipal body did not issue birth certificates to persons born before 1970.

Protestors pelt stones at police personnel after their clash during a rally against NRC and amended Citizenship Act in Lucknow.(Representative Photo/PTI)

Hidayatullah, who was born in 1956, had come to the civic body office to submit two sets of birth certificate forms, one for himself and the other one for his wife Zeba Khatoon as part of his efforts to get his papers in order in anticipation of a nationwide NRC exercise.

Like Hidayatullah, many senior citizens had to return empty-handed from the GMC office as the municipal corporation said it did not issue birth certificates to persons born prior to 1970, a year before Bangladesh came into existence in 1971.

Most of the disappointed applicants had assumed that people born before 1971 may be asked to show proof of birth in India.

The applications of Reyaz, 55, and his wife Noorjahan were also not accepted.

“In our times, there was not much use for birth certificates but now papers like these will be necessary. My wife and I have no birth certificate but we have papers of parents and grandparents dating back to 1960. I will show these if asked to present proof,” he said.

Asad, a 20-year-old student, said he was doing the rounds of the GMC office to get the death certificate of his grandfather Imran Ansari, who died in 2010, to establish his link with the latter in case his citizenship was questioned.

When asked, GMC health officer Mukesh Rastogi said, “Yes, we are not issuing birth certificates of persons born before 1970. However, if necessary one can obtain it with permission from the district magistrate only. For others born after 1970 , substantial proof is sought (Aadhaar, hospital birth certificate, written letter by corporators) for making birth certificates.”