MARGAO
Blame it on manpower constraints or otherwise, the Margao Municipal Council has been caught on the wrong foot for not endorsing on the live birth registers the changes made in the names on birth certificates after corrections.
In fact, endorsements, which are required to be carried out mandatorily in the live birth registers after correction in the names, have been pending in the administrative sections for around half a decade now.
Piles of files for correction of names have been pending in the births and deaths section of the civic body for want of manpower to endorse the corrections in the live birth registers.
Officials in the know told The Goan that while applications for corrections are granted by the civic body, and the changes made accordingly in the computerized records, the endorsements are normally not effected in the live register.
While the municipality had treated the issue casually over the years citing manpower shortage, the civic body has now come under strain with people seeking documents from the live birth register for applying for Portuguese passports. “No doubt, the municipality effected the changes in the computerised records as and when the applications for corrections are granted, but the changes are not effected in the live birth registers,” remarked an official in the know.
To tide over the problem, a group of officials concerned on Wednesday knocked the doors of the Chief Officer Siddivinayak Naik with a plea to depute additional manpower to carry out the endorsements in the live birth registers. “This issue has been pending for over a half a decade. Hundreds, if not thousands of applications for corrections, must have been granted over the last six years, but hardly any endorsements must have been carried out in the live birth registers,” informed an official.
If successive Chief Officers had treated the issue without any seriousness, incumbent Chief Officer Siddivinayak Naik is believed to have expressed his helplessness in committing dedicated staff to carry out the endorsements for want of manpower.
Sources in the know said the existing staffer deployed in the births and death section is over stretched and is preoccupied with day-to-day administration, leaving them no space and time to carry out the endorsements.
The MMC birth section is in receipt of around 50 applications for correction of names on an average a day. Sources said people go for correction in the names on the birth certificates with many an applicant going in for the changes to attach the documents for Portuguese passports.
