the goan I network
MARGAO
There’s finally good news in store for citizens whose birth documents are either destroyed or not available in the offices of the Sub Registrars.
Thirteen-years after the Goa Reconstruction of Registers and Records Act was enacted by the Goa government in 2005 and the Rules three years later in 2008, citizens can now look forward to receive his or her reconstructed birth document if they produce an original copy of the document. This implies that citizens no longer have to move the courts to obtain an order for fresh registration of their births if their birth documents at the offices of the Sub Registrars are either destroyed, torn or mutilated.
A resident of Sirvodem-Margao Xavier Trinidade Fernandes is perhaps the first beneficiary of the Goa Reconstruction of Registers and Records Act, 2005 with the State Registrar Ashutosh Apte passing an order recommending the issuance of the reconstructed birth certificate to the applicant.
The action from the State Registrar comes in the wake of a report received from the Salcete Sub Registrar and the District Registrar, South recommending the reconstruction of Xavier’s birth document.
Incidentally, in his report the District Registrar had stated that the record of birth of the applicant stands destroyed and the same is not available on the e-teor system.
Expressing satisfaction that his case for reconstruction of his birth record has found favour with the registration authorities, Xavier has thanked State Registrar Ashutosh Apte for implementing the Goa Reconstruction of Registers and Records Act, 2005. “I have received an order from the State Register to collect a copy of my reconstructed birth certificate from the office,” Xavier said. He, however, suggested that the State Registrar should make available the reconstructed birth documents online like any other documents.
Xavier had knocked the doors of the registration authorities around August when the Salcete Sub Registrar pointblank told him that his birth documents are not available in the office. He had no option then to approach the court by swearing a false affidavit that his birth document was never registered when he was in possession of the original birth certificate.
“I had to virtually run from pillar to post after petitioning to the registration authorities to issue me a reconstructed birth certificate,” Xavier recalled.
Implementation of the Goa Reconstruction of Registers and Records Act, 2005 is expected to benefit citizens of Salcete, born between 1966-69, since most of the birth documents stored at the Sub Registrar office are either destroyed or torn beyond recognition. “If the applicants are in possession of their original birth documents and if these documents are not available in the Sub Registrar office, they will be eligible for reconstruction of the documents based on the original certificate,” informed an official.
