Errors, delays in Family Register Certificates worry applicants amid SIR

Applicants seeking Family Register Certificates, and those helping them obtain the documents, have triggered concern over delays in their issuance along with errors in personal details. They have urged the authorities to resolve these matters quickly, given the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

One of the main worries is the incorrect recording of applicants’ ages. At least three certificates accessed by The Hindu contain age-related errors. While the remaining four are shown as ‘0’.

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A MeeSeva operator with several years of experience stated he had come across a number of applicants who were surprised and anxious after finding incorrect details on their certificates, in one certificate issued to a Toli Chowki resident listing six family members, the ages of two members are recorded correctly. “It seems that the data being used is static data. If you see, all Election Commission [of India] records have a date of birth component. While the age of his five-year-old child had been recorded correctly.

“I was 19 years old when I secured my ration card, what is the point if this very aspect is incorrect,” he asks, adding that the problem should be resolved at the earliest.

A 37-year-old resident of Sultan Shahi says his certificate listed his age as 19. It seems the incorrect age on these certificates is because the data has been taken from old cards. My child’s age on the certificate is, however, correct,” applicant M.A. Akram says.

While numerous have welcomed the Telangana government’s decision to introduce Family Register Certificates, they say errors in personal details could instead fuel fears of being flagged as anomalies during the SIR process, resulting in notices being issued to them. “The whole purpose of these certificates was to avoid document-related issues during SIR. But now the certificates themselves contain mistakes,” another applicant says.

Applicants additionally point out that GO Ms. 172, which governs the issuance of Family Register Certificates, prescribes a service delivery timeline of two working days from the date of application. However, they allege that a number of applications have been delayed. Screenshots shared with The Hindu show that some applications are awaiting processing.

Officials, even so, offer a different perspective. Since the certificates form part of the SIR process, the officials are verifying each application carefully before issuing them.

“So far, there have been around 7,000 applications in Balapur mandal alone, they say some mandals are receiving an exceptionally high volume of applications and. It takes between five and seven minutes to process each application. We cannot assign just anyone to this work. Having said that, we have escalated the matter,” Balapur Tahsildar P. Indira Devi says.

Meanwhile, citing errors in the certificates, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MLA Mohammed Majid Hussain met MeeSeva Commissioner T. Ravi Kiran and urged the department to introduce a ‘reprint’ option for enabling corrections to certificates containing erroneous details.