LMC faces question of ?life and death?

THE BIRTH and death registration wing of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) is not maintaining proper records.

The issue came to light during a surprise inspection of the municipal commissioner here on Thursday.

The municipal commissioner was taken aback when he knew that the LMC didn’t have any exact data of people died and born during the last 10 years. The municipal commissioner seized all records and pulled up the concerned staff in front of the people who were there to collect the certificates. The residents were happy after the boss gave LMC staff a dressing down.

The staff of 40 vaccinators and 12 clerks in the department is not even feeding the data sent by various hospitals and nursing homes of into the computer.

They are just making certificates of those who approach them for the same.

The reason is simple! The birth and death staff earns handsomely from the relatives of those requiring these important certificates. They demand heavy money to prepare the certificate and show that they don’t have any information of birth and death occurred in the hospital concerned. The staff collects money in the name of collecting the information about the birth and death from the hospital.

According to municipal commissioner VP Singh, “There is total anarchy in the department. I was surprised to see lack of awareness about the Birth and Death Registration Act amongst the employees. Even the counter foil of April was not sent to the CMO office by the staff.”

It is mandatory for LMC officials to collect the information about the birth and death from each hospital, nursing home, graveyards and maintain a record.

Nagar Swasthya Adhikari Dr BBS Rathore, who is also the registrar of birth and death, admitted that lethargy in the working of department. “The department has no data except from the census. In fact we are supposed to give our data’s to the census. It is criminal to show lethargy in such works, I have recommended action against concerned clerks,” said Rathore.

The incharge of birth and death Khurhseed, clerk NK Bajpai, Vaccinator have admitted their fault and asked for the time of one week to maintain all the files and enter the data into the computer. Although municipal commissioner has directed NSA to verify all the files and records seized during the inspection, he has also directed NSA to act tough against the clerks as their fault is not pardonable.