Finding discrepancy in birth and death data given by Tehsildar and the record with Nagpur Municipal Corporation, about 50 per cent certificates may have been issued without proper documents, claimed Kirit Somaiya, former Member of Parliament, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. He called on Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari at NMC headquarters on Thursday evening and sought in depth probe to clear the air. Earlier, Somaiya also met with District Collector Dr Vipin Itankar at Collectorate and raised the issue of alleged bogus documents used for registration of birth and data. Later talking to newspersons at NMC's administrative building, Somaiya said, the issue of data discrepancy has been found in many towns of Maharashtra, which is disturbing trend.

 

Particularly about 52 towns in Marathwada and Vidarbha seems to have this difference in numbers of certificates issued from office of Tehsildar vis-a-vis data with local municipal councils or municipalities. Hence, Somaiya said, he is gong to request Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to extend scope of SIT set-up in aftermath of surfacing of scam in issuance of death certificate at Malegaon, to entire State. This is needed to find out conspiracy, if any, since the modus operandi everywhere seems to be same.

 

The inquiry will reveal whether bogus Aadhaar card and other residential proof documents were used to register illegal Bangladeshi who infiltrated the urban centers of Maharashtra. As to Nagpur specific, Somaiya said, as per data shared by Teshildar, about 1,839 applications were received for registration of birth/deaths and post scrutiny about 1,234 claims were found true while four applications were rejected. About 601 applications are still under scrutiny. But when the issue was broached-up with civic officials they informed that from their side only 639 certificates were issued and hence the BJP leader claimed nearly 50 per cent of documents issued might be cleared using bogus documents allegedly by Bangladeshi infiltrators.

 

The data sheet provided by the Collectorate revealed that in Nagpur District, 4,350 applications were received for registration of birth and deaths. Of these, 2,271 were decided and certificates issued. About 19 applications were summarily rejected while 2,406 are under scrutiny. At NMC, senior officials including Additional Municipal Commissioner Vasumana Pant, Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ranjana Lad, Medical Health Officer Dr Dipak Selokar, Dr Atikur Rehman Khan, In-charge, Birth/Death Registration Department, NMC, and Mukesh Shambharkar, Statistics Officer, also were present during Somaiyya’s interaction with the Municipal Commissioner.