The Shivamogga District Legal Services Authority has launched a special drive to provide birth certificates to all schoolchildren.
It is mandatory for the schoolchildren to furnish birth certificates to avail themselves of the benefits of various scholarship and welfare schemes of the government and obtain passports or undertake property transactions. Owing to procedural hurdles, there was undue delay in the issuance of birth certificates, causing inconvenience to the public. The delay in the issuance of birth certificates was also coming in the way of settlement of various legal problems.
The District Legal Services Authority has launched the special drive to remove procedural hurdles in the issuance of birth certificates. The authority has roped in the Department of Public Instruction for the purpose.
Sharashchandra Angadi, Principal District and Sessions Judge, who is also the president of authority, said that birth certificates would be provided for 10,000 students in the first phase. In the coming days, all schoolchildren in the district would be provided with the birth certificates, he said.
The authority has got the applications for birth certificates printed and distributed them among students for free. Teachers in the respective schools had been asked to guide the students on filling the applications and furnishing the essential documents.
The filled-in applications would be scrutinised at the office of the authority under proper supervision. Later, the applications would be sent to the jurisdictional urban local bodies (ULBs) or the Revenue officials, who are empowered to issue birth certificates.
Mr. Angadi said that ULBs were also cooperating with the authority for success of the drive. The Shivamogga City Corporation has agreed to waive the nominal fee collected for the issuance of birth certificates. The city corporation had also come forward to get the birth certificates laminated, he said.
