Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) corporators on Monday (July 21, 2026) raised concerns over the piled-up delays in getting birth certificates corrected or issued due to a crackdown meant to catch fraudsters in fake birth certificate cases. BMC corporators across the parties demanded to fix the system.
Several corporators highlighted that the delay in birthday certificates is derailing study-abroad plans, visa applications for scores of residents, and document problems.
Opposition leader in BMC Kishori Pednekar criticised the fact that honest citizens are being made “scapegoats” in the fake birth certificate case. She was responding to the BJP corporator Dr. Neel Somaiya’s suggestion demanding regular audit of the birth registration and issuance process.
He said, “The verification should be made more efficient by finding loopholes in the system and setting up an effective mechanism to prevent misuse of municipal documents.
The concerns around birth certificates rose in Mumbai after Special Investigation Team (SIT) was set-up to investigate about 19,700 birth records issued without the necessary documents. Cases have been registered and disciplinary action has also been taken against the concerned BMC employees.
Congress corporator Ajanta Yadav said that there is a huge rush of citizens in ward offices and there is a delay of six months to a year for corrections in birth records. Meanwhile, Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Shiv Sena corporator Ankit Prabhu and Chintaman Niwate demanded that to temporarily starting the online facility to relieve the ward-office backlog immediately,
However, BJP corporator Ganesh Khankar suggested that alone ward-level Medical Health Officers (MHOs) has 3000 OTPs pending used for verification and issue of certificate
“The birth and death registration system has been shifted from the SAP system to the Civil Registration System (CRS) in 2016. However, the the registration in CRS started from January 2024, and since then, about 90,000 corrections have been made so far,” said said BMC Additional Commissioner Vipin Sharma.
“The correction module for birth certificates wasn’t activated until January 2024. Since then, roughly 90,000 corrections have gone through — a volume that underscores how much backlog had built up even before the fraud investigation added new friction.
The delay is due to post-scam decision to centralise all correction approvals with the Executive Health Officer (EHO), stripping ward offices of the authority they previously held — a move intended to prevent further malpractice but one that has visibly clogged the system. The BMC has now sent a proposal to the Central Registrar seeking to restore ward-level editing powers.
According to Mr. Sharma, the civic body is also digitiing birth records dating back to 1960, and when ward-level authority might be restored, leaving affected applicants with no immediate relief in sight.
Published – July 21, 2026 03:47 am IST
