The Hindu : New Delhi News : NDMC to computerise birth and death records

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 14, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

NDMC to computerise birth and death records

Manisha Jha

The entire project is expected to cost about Rs.6 lakh
Citizens can also demand issuance of a hard copy

NEW DELHI: Those tired of waiting to collect birth and death certificates from the New Delhi Municipal Council can now heave a sigh of relief.

The NDMC will soon be able to provide computerised records of birth and death certificates from 1928 to 1995 on its portal. These records can then be viewed by the citizens. They can also demand issuance of a hard copy from the NDMC the same day. The entire project, expected to cost about Rs.6 lakh, will be completed in about six months.

The NDMC has already computerised records between 1996 and 2003 and at present the process for records from 2004 to 2007 is on.

NDMC Information Technology Department director Anil Kumar Pipal said: “A vendor will be roped in to enter and computerise the pre-1996 records from all the nine hospitals located in the NDMC area as well as home birth records registered at the NDMC Birth and Death Registrar’s Office on Mandir Marg. The tendering process will be initiated soon.”

According to Mr. Pipal, the computerisation plan would facilitate faster issuance of these certificates by doing away with manual sifting of records and instead provide to citizens certificate printouts on pre-written stationery dually stamped and countersigned by the Registrar. “These certificates are often required by citizens for school or college admissions, jobs, immigration as well as for matters relating to insurance policy and succession among others,” he added.

NDMC Medical Health Officer P. K. Sharma said, “Earlier, the procedure to obtain the certificate consisted of applying for it, manually searching its records and then intimating the applicants to come and collect it. Due to this lengthy process, citizens had to wait for around 15 days to a month to obtain the certificate. But now they can simply log on to the NDMC site and check the availability status of their certificates and come and collect it from the three Palika Suvidha Kendras and the Registrar’s Office there and then.”

“Being legal documents, these certificates cannot be made accessible to the public directly but this computerisation of records will enable citizens to view the details of their certificates and collect it in a fast-track manner through our four outlets,” he added.

Though proposed three months ago, the plan was given the go-ahead by the NDMC Chairman, Secretary and the Finance Department recently. However the Memorandum of Understanding between the NDMC and the hospitals that assures the authenticity of records sent to the Registrar’s Office is yet to be cleared by the Law Department and inked.

Problems

According to the NDMC Registrar of Birth and Death, V. K. Dabas, some minor practical glitches also remain to be ironed out. “We anticipate some minor teething problems such as training of the NDMC staff to get used to computerised issuance instead of manual, but we are trying our best to implement the plan with minimum delays,” said Dr. Dabas.

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