On October 13, M. Velraj’s family should have been happy at getting an income certificate from the Coimbatore North Taluk office.
It is worried, though. The worry is not that the certificate has wrongly mentioned the income but that it will have to apply once again.
The income certificate mentions that the family’s annual income is Rs. 96. Not Rs. 96,000 as the family had wanted in its application. Velraj’s wife Bakyalakshmi had wanted the certificate sometime ago and had approached a friend, K.C. Moorthi, for the purpose.
He had helped the family apply at the e-service centre at a cooperative bank in Chinniyampalayam in the last week of September. Mr. Moorthi said that it was the family’s third application as the first two were rejected for one reason or the other.
Ms. Bakyalakshmi said that the family wanted the certificate as her daughter V. Rajeswari could be eligible for the scholarship her school offered. Velraj is a goods autorickshaw driver and Bakyalakshmi, a home-maker. When the certificate reached the family, it was shocked.
For, it stated not only in numbers that the family’s income was Rs. 96, but also in words. And in English and Tamil. Mr. Moorthi said that this showed the callous approach towards issuing certificate and indicates that the officials at various levels had not applied their mind. Now the family would have to apply again and wait for some more time. How long could it keep applying and that too paying around Rs. 100 every time.
A senior North Taluk officer said that it appeared to be a clerical error.
The certificate was usually issued at Deputy Thasildar’s level and he or she issued close to 500 such certificates everyday, aside from looking after other duties.
Therefore, it was humanly impossible to notice such errors.
The office would rectify the error and do all that was possible, he added.
