To check fraud, east Delhi corp to link Aadhaar with birth and death certificates

The decision has also been taken in the backdrop of a series of incidents involving stealing/ illegal issuing of birth and death certificates in North and East Corporations that took place in the last two years.

To control the alleged fraudulence in issuing of birth and death certificates, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation has decided to link them with the Aadhaar numbers soon.

The civic agency will ask the applicants to mention the Aadhaar number of parents of new born babies and the Unique Identity number (UID) of the deceased/his heirs in the birth and death certificates.

EDMC commissioner Mohanjeet Singh has on Tuesday directed the Information Technology department to chalk out the plan for speedy implementation of the project.

Officials say requisition has already been sent to a private company (Tech Mahindra) for collecting data and initiating work on linking death and birth certificates with Aadhaar number.

The civic agency will ask the applicants to mention the Aadhaar number of parents of new born babies and the Unique Identity number (UID) of the deceased/his heirs in the birth and death certificates.

“In Phase I, the civic agency will inquire the Aadhaar numbers of parents approaching us for their child’s birth certificate. Similarly the Aadhaar/UID number of deceased/parents of the deceased/ spouse (if the deceased is married) need to be filled with application for death certificate,” said a senior official from the public health department, EDMC.

According to the official, EDMC has already received reminders from the Government of India twice, which is why the work is going on a war footing. “But no timeline has being fixed for accomplishing the data so far,” he said.

The officials also admitted that linking of Aadhaar card will ensure prompt availability of birth and death certificates in the jurisdiction, as all information can be accessed in one go.

The decision has also been taken in the backdrop of a series of incidents involving stealing/ illegal issuing of birth and death certificates in North and East Corporations that took place in the last two years.

In November 2015, the EDMC’s website was hacked and 76 birth/death certificates were issued illegally. Similarly in May 2016, about 20,000 pre-printed (blank) birth/death certificates were stolen from one of the offices of the North Corporation. In both the cases, action were taken against the defaulting staff, but to avoid these incidents in future, the step would be taken.

Prior to this, in July 2015, the CBI had also allegedly detected large number of irregularities in issuance of birth certificates by the North Corporation, during a surprise check.

“The initiative will help in avoiding duplicity as details of the person can be accessed with the help of one (Aadhaar) number,” said Yoginder Singh Mann, EDMC spokesperson.