Times of India: Margoa: Tuesday,
May 17, 2016.
Hinting at
the possibility of a 'major fake birth registration scam involving individuals
in the Margao Municipal Council (MMC)', the vigilante NGO called Shadow Council
for Margao on Saturday demanded that a high-level inquiry be conducted to
screen all bogus registrations on records with appropriate action taken against
those responsible.
Former MMC
chairperson Savio Coutinho, along with other Shadow Council members such as
former MMC councillor Radha Kavlekar, Laurel Abranches, Agostinho Gama and
Melvin Fernandes told a press conference that 'the Shadow Council had received
information through their RTI application that Imtiyaz Anwar Sayed allegedly
registered his birth fraudulently in the MMC records showing his place of birth
as Margao although he was born on December 11, 1996 in Halliyal-Karnataka with
his birth also registered at his native place'.
"After
we received information about the alleged fraud, an application was filed under
the RTI Act on January 25, 2016, seeking details and documents produced for the
registration of birth. After a follow-up, the council issued a copy of the
court order produced by the applicant. The application for the non-availability
certificate and other papers produced along with the application was not issued
citing the reason 'not traceable'. We were compelled to file an application
before the first appellate authority on March 1, 2016, hoping that we would get
the information sought. We have not received the information till this day.
Apart from the application of the individual, an application for details of all
the late registrations by the council during the last 10 years from 2005-2015
had also been submitted on January 2, 2016, and a subsequent appeal before the
first appellate authority on March 1, 2016, but no information is forthcoming
in this case, too," said Coutinho.
Shadow
Council members said, "These types of fake or bogus registrations are done
mostly by migrants to avail of benefits of various government schemes,
passports and even government jobs. We also have information about verification
sought by the passport authority with regards to an application of a passport
of another individual whose birth records were found suspicious. The passport
authority was not furnished with any reply in this regard, too."
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