Kolkata: Police on Thursday carried out searches at Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC), and several municipalities and gram panchayats across Bengal as part of a statewide probe into alleged irregularities in the issuance of birth and death certificates since 1997.The action coincided with the state govt’s decision to res-cind the power of municipal chairpersons, mayors and panchayat pradhans to issue such certificates. Chief secretary Manoj Agrawal said the health department would soon notify permanent govt officials as the sole authorities for issuing the certificates.“Birth certificates are important documents. After the elections, we received numerous complaints. During the SIR, several irregularities came to light. Police, too, have received many complaints. Fake birth certificates have been detected in many places. Many availed of benefits using fake documents,” Agrawal said.The Left Front govt had in 1997 amended Registration of Births and Deaths Rules to empower panchayat pradhans to issue birth/death certificates, he said. Mayors and municipal chairpersons were given the same powers in 2000. The state now alleges that the system led to issuance of fake certificates in return for money or political favour. There were allegations that fake birth certificates were used to include names in the electoral roll.Agrawal clarified that door-to-door verification would be conducted and “genuine residents” without birth certificates would not be denied documentation. “No illegal foreign national will be allowed to stay here,” he said.“This is only a verification exercise to make the system corruption-free. The verification will be carried out only by permanent govt officials. No contractual employee will be involved,” he said, warning of legal action against those issuing fraudulent certificates.The govt will re-verify all birth and death certificates issued since 1997 and create a unified digital database linked to the Centre’s Civil Registration System portal. Registers from civic bodies and panchayats were seized for scanning and data preservation. The ones in use will be returned quickly to avoid disruption of services, officials said.In Kolkata, police searched the KMC headquarters and the offices of boroughs 1, 2 and 10. Teams from Lalbazar, and Golf Green, Chitpur and Shyampukur police stations examined registers, other documents and digital records from crematoria and graveyards. In borough 10, officers checked records linked to 12 wards, three govt hospitals, 10 private hospitals and a graveyard. “We are matching documents from hospitals and crematoria with official records,” an officer said.At the KMC headquarters, a team from Lalbazar went to the birth/death record section and interrogated the civic officials on duty before seizing a host of documents. Paramilitary personnel stood guard while police carried out the eight-hour raid, which started around 9.30am. A civic official said the drive was focusing on, among other alleged irregularities, the issuance of birth certificates or copies of such certificates while the special intensive revision of the electoral roll was in progress in Bengal.“We set up a special birth certificate help desk to bail out people during the SIR. Anomalies were detected in the issuance of birth certificates during that period,” the official said. Another team went to Keoratola crematorium.Bidhannagar Police raided the BMC headquarters and six borough offices, seizing hard and soft copies of certificates. Raids were also conducted in Birbhum, Cooch Behar, East and West Burdwan, Hooghly, and North and South 24 Parganas.With inputs from Dwaipayan Ghosh, Saikat Ray and Tamaghna Banerjee
