Man alive, gets death certificate

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 21

In an embarrassing incident, the Municipal Corporation (MC) today issued death certificate of a person who had applied the same for his deceased brother.

Amritpal Singh, a city resident, had applied for the death certificate of his brother Harneet Bajwa in March this year. MC employees delayed the process and when they were pulled up by higher authorities, they prepared the death certificate in haste, thus creating the blunder.

According to Amritpal, MC staff failed to issue the certificate even 21 days after applying. So he approached the Punjab Right to Service Commission that sent the application to the Deputy Commissioner (DC), Amritsar. “The DC instructed the MC on July 11 to do the needful, but as the MC officials failed, I met the DC yesterday. Today, Jagdeep Singh Cheema, Commissioner, Right to Service, conducted a meeting with administration officials where I was called. So MC employees prepared the certificate in a hurry to deliver it same day,” he said.

He has demanded action against the errant employees.

Meanwhile, MC officials, who attended the meeting, claimed that it was a software error.

Amritpal, however, said, “MC officials are trying to establish that contractual employees of Suvidha Centre are at fault. MC officials should be penalised and the mistake should be rectified at the earliest,” he added.