It has been more than a month since GHMC Commissioner M. T. Krishna Babu assured an agitated council about restoring the right of Citizen Service Centres (CSCs) to issue birth certificates along with Meeseva centres. But, it is yet to happen.
The Commissioner is said to have written to the government about the council’s demand to open more avenues to obtain birth/death certificates by permitting CSCs to issue and seeking appropriate directions.
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The civic body was forced to halt issuing birth certificates through its CSCs recently following a direction from the IT Department.
The department’s contention was that when digitised certificates were made available through Meesevas there was no rationale in issuing certificates signed with the traditional ink signature of the medical officer concerned.
Meesevas are able to issue instant certificates as about 25 lakh certificates from 2000-2013 have been digitised from among the 75 lakh certificates computerised since 1957. The demand now is that CSCs be allowed to do the same.
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For that to happen, senior officials say, the IT infrastructure should be strengthened in the CSCs. The government, if it agrees to the GHMC request, will have to ask the AP Online to share the Meeseva software with the CSCs to enable them issue digitised certificates.
“Allowing CSCs to issue certificates together with Meeseva centres will be of great help to citizens. Moreover, at CSCs a certificate costs just Rs.20 while it is Rs. 42 at Meeseva centres,” pointed out TDP floor leader in the council Singireddy Srinivas Reddy.
The CSCs were issuing four times more the number of certificates compared to Meeseva centres before the former was told to stop the service. Currently, Meesevas are issuing close to 400 certificates a day when compared to 100 a day before whereas CSCs were issuing up to 800 certificates at the peak level.