After 33 months, ‘count the dead’

Not the living, it's the dead who are holding up finalisation of the baseline survey for MNIC cards in Jammu's Kathua district.

After 33 months and the expenditure of Rs 40 lakh, long after the lapse of the last date, the chief implementation officer of the scheme, the Registrar-General of India, has asked the local administration to ensure the survey does not name anyone who might have died in during its duration.

"(Since) sufficient time has elapsed after the verification of evidence by verification teams (VTs)", the Registrar-General states in his letter dated July 13, 2006, "some of the persons might have died, but their names exist in the LRIC (local register of Indian citizen)."

With a view to delete these names, the letter says that ''the village revenue officer (patwari)/in-charge of the urban ward will identify such persons from the draft LRIC and LRR and submit their names to the SDRCR (sub district registrar of citizenship registration, an officer of the rank of the tehsildar) through CVO (citizen validiation officer, equivalent to naib tehsildars) in the prescribed format''.

They will also collect particulars of the deceased from prominent people of the villages/urban blocks visiting them in connection with updating of revenue records and other similar jobs. After initially collecting information, they will undertake verfication by personally visting the family and making appropriae entries.

A consolidated list of all the dead will then be forwarded to SDRCR though the CVO who, in turn, will send it to MNIC centre-in-charge, who will not digitally sign the records of such persons for assigning of national identity number (NIN) and preparation of identity cards.

The letter also asks the MNIC centre-in-charge to send these lists of the dead to the registrar of births and deaths for verification/registration of deaths. ''On receipt of the report of the registrar of births and deaths, along with registration particulars of all the deceased persons, their names will be deleted from the LRIC/LRR,'' the letter adds.

... contd.

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