KMC scanner on fake birth and death certificate touts

Kolkata: Manas Das, a resident of Tollygunge and a bank employee, needed rectification of an error in the death certificate of his father to settle claims for a life insurance scheme. The certificate that the sub-registrar had issued from Keoratala crematorium had a spelling mistake. However, Das couldn’t get an appointment with the civic officials.He made futile attempts twice to get a slot with a KMC Chatbot service. Out of desperation, Das approached a tout and paid Rs 10,000 for the necessary correction. “I could bypass the online system only after I agreed to pay Rs 10,000 to a broker,” said Das.
Mohua Mukherjee, a private firm employee and a resident of Kankurgachi has a similar story to tell. Mukherjee needed a small correction in the birth certificate of her son. She had applied for such a correction a year ago through a drop-box service. “I had submitted all valid documents relating to such a correction in the drop box. I got no reply from the civic officials. When the civic brass introduced a Chatbot service, I hoped to get advantage of the new system. When repeated attempts to book a slot failed, I decided to pay extra. I got hold of a tout and paid him Rs 7,000 for the necessary correction,” said Mukherjee. Complaints are pouring in the KMC headquarters from across the city pleading helplessness for not being able to apply for obtaining birth or death certificates through the Chatbot service. A KMC health department official conceded that after the civic authorities decided to do away with the previous drop-box system or the manual system that existed in pre-Covid time, the capacity to acknowledge applications has been reduced significantly. “Under the present system of application, we can allow 10 applicants in a day. So, applications in large numbers are getting stuck and the list is growing every day,” said the civic official.
Out of desperation a section of the applicants is getting trapped by ‘toutraj’ operating in the headquarters and the ‘syndicate’ is thriving with help from some civic officials and policemen on duty at the birth and death registration counters.
However, citizens often get cheated after the certificates — which they get from the touts after paying between an amount between Rs 5,000 and Rs 25,000 — are found to be fake. A KMC health department official said the role of three civic employees posted in the health department was being probed in connection with the issuance of fake birth and death certificates.