KAKINADA: A mother’s grief turned into an administrative nightmare when she was forced to approach the Kakinada District Collectorate during the PGRS on Monday, alleging that local officials extorted thousands of rupees from her and were now demanding an additional Rs 35,000 just to fix a gender mistake in her late son’s death certificate.
The complainant, Pennadi Vijaya, a single mother who raised her son Pennadi Naveen (18) after her husband left them years ago, lost him under tragic circumstances in late 2024.
Naveen, a second-year diploma student at Andhra Polytechnic who worked part-time catering jobs to support his mother, went missing on November 30, 2024. His body was fished out of the Jagannaickpur Salt Creek three days later by Kakinada I-Town police.
The family’s ordeal compounded when Vijaya applied for his death certificate after a year-long delay. After securing a Non-Availability Certificate (NAC) from the municipal section, she visited the Yetimoga 14th Ward Secretariat. There, Education Data Processing operator S Murali accidentally registered Naveen’s gender as ‘female’ on the government portal.
Unaware of the glitch, the file was routed through the Kakinada Urban Tahsildar’s office to Revenue Divisional Officer Mallibabu, who signed off on the proceeding orders without noticing error.
Vijaya alleged that she had already paid Rs 21,000 to lower-level revenue staff to get those initial papers processed. When she discovered the mistake and begged for a corrected copy, staff members allegedly told her she would have to shell out another Rs 35,000—including cuts for the Revenue Inspector, Tahsildar, and RDO office—to get the gender changed. Left with no other choice, Vijaya took her plight directly to the District Collector.
When contacted, officials passed the buck. EDP Operator Sangani Murali admitted it was his mistake, claiming he made a clerical error while entering the details on the web portal.
Revenue Inspector B Raju denied all allegations of bribery, claiming no staff member accepted money and that the mother was making wild charges due to frustration over delays. RDO Mallibabu stated that because the mistake originated at the secretariat level, the data was locked online, requiring a fresh inquiry and formal correction procedure to rectify.