Baby ‘vanishes’ from records

GHMC staffers selling birth certificates

Some GHMC staff have ‘disappeared’ a baby from official records.

City couple T. Jyothi and T. Yadagiri, who went to the GHMC Circle 8 office for the inclusion of name of their daughter, found that the data regarding her birth at the Koti maternity hospital was missing.

They said they had verified the data two months ago through the MYGHMC app. They said officials claimed even offline details were unavailable. Mr Yadagiri said he had approached senior officials but to no avail.

As per norms, applicants can incorporate the child’s name till the age of 15. Taking advantage of this provision, some GHMC staff are issuing certificates to people and deleting online data regarding child birth. Data entry operators play a vital role in processing the birth certificates as the officials concerned have been sharing digital keys with them. Earlier also this used to happen but the operators who issued fake certificates were caught by police and were suspended by the corporation.

Nowadays, the operators are erasing the database completely due to which the authorities are finding it tough to track the scam. Sources alleged that the staff have been demanding `10,000 to `20,000 from people who need birth certificate immediately.

In another incident, which even took regional passport officials by surprise, multiple birth certificates were issued on a single person’s name.

The passport officer wrote to GHMC stating that one Tahoor Koreen had obtained a passport on November 3, 1999, by submitting a certificate showing the date of birth as April 21, 1997.

Subsequently renewed her passport on January 20, 2003, by submitting another certificate showing the date of birth on January 21, 1997.

Now the applicant has approached the passport office to reissue the passport with the old birth date. Confused passport officials have asked the GHMC about the genuineness of the birth certificates.

A source said some GHMC staff were making up to `10,000 to issue each fake birth certificate.

Deleting of information from the database and giving the birth certificates is the latest method to earn money, he said.

Admitting to irregularities in the wing, a senior official on condition of anonymity said that the corporation asked for a report in two months.