Ranchi: Issuance of birth & death certificates gets simplified

Ranchi: A new system adopted by the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) in March for faster issuance of birth and death certificates has started bearing fruit as the waiting time has come down to five days from months.

As per the data accessed by the TOI, the hospital received 1,692 applications for death certificates and 516 for birth certificates between March and May. The hospital has issued over 2,100 certificates, most of which were issued within four to five days.

Deputy medical superintendent Dr Shailesh Tripathi, under whose supervision the new system is being run, said, “We have done away with the old practice and opened two dedicated counters for the serve from March 8. The first counter is for accepting the applications, while the second counter issues the certificates. Both the counters are manned by our trained staff, who are assisted by two officials.”

Dr Tripathi said, “Earlier, there was no mechanism to track the submitted applications but now we issue an acknowledgement and that is entered in our database. The application is then checked for the required documents, following which the certificate is issued. Also, we have started a calling and text facility, as part of which we contact the person concerned as soon as the certificate is ready. This also helps us in reducing the waiting time.”

One Shankar Munda, a Tupudana resident who had come to collect the death certificate of his grandfather on Monday, said, “I was intimated by the hospital around seven days ago over call to collect the certificate.”

Latehar resident Ravishankar Dubey said, “I know how difficult it is to get a certificate but now, thanks to the new mechanism, the process has become easy. I had submitted an application for a birth certificate a day after my sister’s son was born and it was handed over to me in a matter of four days.”