Birth certificate applicants harassed with weird rules 

Citizens seeking birth certificates of their children are being harassed with weird rules at Chattogram City Corporation allegedly to make people pay extra money.

The service seekers also alleged that they are not getting proper service when they go to union parishad, municipality or city corporation offices; rather they are having to pay beyond the government-fixed rate for birth and death certificates.

In most cases they are paying to the middlemen only to be relieved from being compliant with peculiar rules and get the expected services. 

Earlier, the rule was to submit the NID of their parents to get the birth certificates of children, which was changed early this year instructing the parents to submit their birth certificates. 

There are not only complications in the application process but also lack of coordination among the authorities, unclear notion of the concerned officers and corruption are blamed for the anarchy.  

Expatriate Iqbal Hossain from Boalkhali told TBS they needed the birth certificates of their twins for their admission in school. When they applied for birth certificates of their children, the city corporation asked for the birth certificates of both of the husband and wife which they failed to provide. 

When Iqbal applied for his and wife's birth certificate, the corporation then asked them to submit the birth certificates of their parents who do not have such documents and his father died many years ago.

"As I am an expatriate, I want the job done quickly. But I failed several times after trying since November. Now I have been trying through a middleman and got my birth certificate paying Tk500," her said.

"I am paying for my wife's certificate. Maybe money will be required for the children's certificates too," said Iqbal.

Not only Iqbal Hossian, every applicant for birth certificates who were born after 2001 are facing same problem as it has been made mandatory to submit the birth certificates of their parents while seeking children's birth certificate. 

Another sufferer Jaynal Abedin said every adult person has their national ID. 

Then why is it mandatory to submit the birth certificates of their parents to get the birth certificate of the children instead of NID number, he asked. 

Resident of ward 17 of Baklia Mohammad Bin Idris said the staffs at birth registration office cannot solve any problem and they are reluctant to answer any queries of the service seekers.  

"I could not solve the problem of getting my birth certificate even after two months as they asked for the birth certificate of my elderly mother for which I am not getting my passport," said Idris.

 In the present system, the online application form for birth certificate can be submitted online. After 15 days of form submission, the print copy alongwith other documents is submitted to the zonal office.  The concerned officer then issues birth certificate after necessary scrutiny.

The rate for birth certificate has been fixed depending on the age from Tk25 to Tk50 and Tk50 to Tk100 for correction in the certificate. 

 The reality is completely different in Chattogram City Corporation and in other union parishad digital centre in terms of fee. 

The service seekers do not get their birth certificates timely even after paying multiple times of the actual fee.

The union parishad and upazila digital centres are taking Tk300 to Tk1200 as birth registration fee.  

Describing her experience, school teacher Nadia Sultana said she went for the death certificate of her mother to the Chattogram City Corporation for withdrawing money deposited by her mother. She was asked to get the birth certificate of her mother to get her death certificate, she said.

"When I paid money to a middleman, I did not need to submit that highly important document to get birth certificate," she said.

But the concerned official for providing digital birth certificate Registrar General Mustakim Billah disapproved all allegations.

"No one is facing any problem to receive birth certificates after a certain time if all the documents are ok. There is no scope to get certificate by paying money and no one can hold it," he claimed.