The Hindu                23.05.2013

Birth, death certificates at the click of a button

Records between 1981 and 2011 available online.

Want birth or death certificates? Your destination is not any Coimbatore Corporation office but your computer at home or a browsing centre. For, the civic body has launched the facility where the certificates would be available online for free download.

Mayor S.M. Velusamy launched the facility in the presence of Commissioner G. Latha, Deputy Commissioner S. Sivarasu, heads of various committees and zones and councillors.

Those who were born or the kin of those who had breathed their last in the city between 1981 and 2011 could access the records by entering the date of birth or death, the sex, father’s name, mother’s name and the place of birth or death.

A release from the Corporation said that 8.99 lakh birth certificates and 5.46 lakh death records were digitised in the process. For accessing records of those who were born or had died after 2011, one has to go to the ward office concerned.

The release said that the Corporation erected a new server for the purpose so that a maximum 2,000 downloads could take place at a given point in time.

This was part of the civic body’s efforts to digitise records and bring about a transparent administration.

Mr. Velusamy said that the Corporation had also made available online the process of getting building plan approval for buildings less than 4,000 sq.ft. It had also introduced the SMS-based feedback facility.

The Corporation had also recently launched the SMS-based grievance redress system, where the citizens could send messages to the given number for a time-bound remedy.

Officials, right from the Commissioner, would daily review the status of the complaints received and redressed for further action.

Within a few days of the launch of the facility, the Corporation had received more than 2,000 messages.

8.99 lakh birth certificates and 5.46 lakh death records digitised.

The Times of India              16.05.2013

Birth, death certificates to be available online from next week

COIMBATORE: Birth and death certificates will soon be made available online, thanks to the efforts of the city municipal corporation which is presently creating a database of births and deaths registered in the city since 1978. Part of the civic body's e-governance initiatives, the database will soon be uploaded on its server from where residents can access the certificates.

"We are preparing the database at the moment and it will become functional by next week," said G Latha, commissioner, Coimbatore corporation. The civic body will upload web links which could be accessed and searched based on name, address or date of birth or death maintained in the register. The copy of the birth and death certificate could be accessed and downloaded from the website. Latha said the database will be expanded (to include births and deaths before 1978) in the coming months.

The civic body had included the proposal as one of its e-initiatives in the 2012 corporation budget. As of now, it maintains a manual record of births and deaths. Whenever a birth is registered in any of the government or private hospitals, it is reported to the city municipal corporation. As per the present system, family members of the deceased or the newborn has to approach the zonal office of the corporation and fill in an application with the name, respective date and other personal details. These forms have to be submitted at the respective ward offices along with a fee of Rs 5 to procure a copy of the certificate.

"After the birth is registered with us, the application needs to be submitted after the name of the baby is decided. It has to be filled up and submitted within the first year of the birth. The birth certificate can be collected from us within a few days. If a self addressed envelope is provided then the document will be posted," said a corporation official.

Once the online facility is introduced, residents will be able to download the birth and death certificates from the corporation web portal after the completion of the initial registration procedure.