The solace of avoiding a wait in long queues can be seen on the face of all who approach the newly-opened facilitation centre at the Corporation office in the city. They all have in their hands the token taken from one of the three token-generating machines kept separately for birth and death certificates, marriage certificate and residential certificate.
They just need to move towards the counter where their token number is displayed to get things done. It takes just a day’s wait for the applicants to obtain their certificates. More time will be taken only for making corrections in the certificates.
M Sasidharan Nair from Plamoodu visited the centre in connection with the birth certificates of his two sons. “It is well-managed here. The process took only a few minutes to complete,” he said.
According to a Kudumbashree worker selling application forms outside the centre, around 200 forms are sold for birth and death certificates per day and next comes the forms for marriage and residential certificates, a maximum of which will be 30. Also, there are women who help the applicants fill the forms.
As indicated by the number of forms, the rush at the counters for birth and death certificates is more.
“A large number of births is taking place in the hospitals in the city and hence we also are witnessing an increasing number of applicants. In the next steering committee meeting, we will discuss the matter of raising the number of counters to ensure the smooth functioning of the centre,” said Welfare Standing Committee chairman Palayam Rajan.
The current plan of setting up similar centres at the Corporation zonal offices could be implemented once networking with the main office in the city is done. All these facilities will be made available there also.
The facilitation centre, completed with a fund of Rs 20 lakh by Nirmithi Kendra, was inaugurated by Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan earlier this month.