Hyderabad: Of the 300 corporate hospitals and nursing homes in GHMC limits, over 200 are not linked to the civic body for registration of births. The details that the hospitals do provide to the GHMC are not being updated online which is causing immense hardship to applicants.
The earlier council had introduced digital birth certificates to be issued within 24 hours of the baby’s birth, but the corporation has not been able to provide the certificate to everyone since it does not have a tie-up with many hospitals. Also several mistakes occur in the address mentioned, due to which the certificate does not reach the parents.
Mr N. Lakshmi Narayana, a resident of Vijayapuri Colony at Vanasthalipuram, said the details of a birth in the family were submitted by Aruna Hospital at Chandrapuri Colony, L.B Nagar. It took the GHMC circle office three months to update the information online. “I was not able to get the certificate from Mee-Seva. The staff at Circle 3 office told me that the data entry operator was not available to update the records. Also there was no one to help the applicant with the proper procedure.”
Ms Sandhya Devi, a resident of Circle 18, Secunderabad, said, “My son was born in May at a hospital which is linked to the GHMC. The hospital informed us that the birth details were mailed to the GHMC and the digital birth certificate will be issued. However no certificate was delivered. When I checked with the GHMC office after a month, it had been returned as the address was wrongly printed.”
Due to the lack of an online link between the GHMC and the hospitals, it is taking a few weeks or even months for people to obtain the birth certificate. In these cases, the hospitals have to send physical reports of the birth within 21 days to the GHMC for registration. It has not been mandatory for hospitals to link with the corporation.
The corporation will then register the birth and issue the certificate to the applicants through the eight GHMC circles or the Mee Seva centres. The applicants have to pay the prescribed fee for the certificates and collect them three days from the date of application.
A GHMC official said that the birth has to be registered with the GHMC within 21 days of birth, by filling up the form given by the GHMC registrar. Generally the hospitals which do not have an online link with the GHMC maintain a birth register and send it to the GHMC regularly.
“Once it reaches the GHMC office, the applicant can visit a Mee Seva centre and apply for the birth certificate,” he said. Hospitals that have the online link send the details to the GHMC on the day of the birth and the certificate is issued the same day.
