Administration shaken after birth registrations exceed prescribed norms

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The administration has been jolted after it came to light that birth certificates were issued in numbers far exceeding the prescribed limits in two villages. District health officer Dr Abhay Dhanorkar has instructed block development officers and village development officers to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter.

Village development officers have expressed suspicion that the incident may have occurred due to the gram panchayat password being “hacked”. The issue of delayed issuance of birth and death certificates is currently a topic of discussion. In this regard, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya has directed the concerned officials to immediately cancel certificates that were issued after undue delay. Somaiya has specifically instructed that villages in Sillod and other tehsils be inspected.

For these cases, the revenue department has appointed the deputy chief executive officer of the zilla parishad’s panchayat department as the nodal officer, while the district health officer has been entrusted with the responsibility of district registrar. Accordingly, Dr Dhanorkar examined the software records of Undangaon in Sillod and Molai in Soygaon. During this scrutiny, it was found that in both villages, the number of birth certificate entries was more than half of the total population.

District health officer and district registrar Dr Abhay Dhanorkar has warned that the village development officers and the concerned block development officers of both villages must investigate the cases in detail, failing which criminal cases will be registered against the guilty officials.

How the matter came to light

Delayed registrations are made through the ‘add old’ tab. Officials questioned village development officers and BDOs about how many entries had been made under this tab. It was then revealed that, as of January 15, the number of birth certificate entries exceeded half the village population. The village development officer of Molai stated that they had not made such a large number of entries and suspected that the password of the ‘add old’ tab might have been hacked. Instructions have now been issued to BDOs and village development officers to conduct a thorough inquiry in all villages across the district, in addition to these two villages.

— Dr Abhay Dhanorkar, district health officer and district registrar