A racket involving fake birth certificates has come to light in Cooch Behar, where nearly 70 to 72 forged certificates have surfaced during the process of converting old manual documents into digital ones.
The incident came to notice when people began submitting old manual certificates at the Cooch Behar Municipality to obtain digital birth records in the wake of the upcoming special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bengal.
Over the past year, the number of applications has grown significantly as residents rushed to digitise their old certificates.
In the process of verification, municipal workers havedetected several forged documents, said sources.
Amina Ahmed, the vice-chairperson of the civic body, said that the problem became evident when a woman approached her with an old certificate. The document purportedly carried Ahmed's signature as vice-chairperson.
"I immediately noticed that the signature was not mine," Ahmed said.
"I told the woman that the signature was fake. As soon as I pointed it out, she threw away the certificate and fled. This was not the first such case and we have already informed the police earlier,” she said.
Ahmed said municipal employees carefully check every manual certificate before approving it for digital conversion, and in recent months close to 70 certificates have been found forged.
Civic chairman Rabindranath Ghosh said fake certificates are being identified almost every day.
“Certificates from 10 to 15 years ago are being submitted for digital conversion. During the checking process, we are finding two to four forged certificates daily. Altogether, around 70 to 72 fake certificates have been detected so far. We are approaching police with the matter,” Ghosh said.
Municipal sources said that many documents carry fake signatures of civic officials and do not appear in official registers, proving they were never issued by the municipality. "The administration has decided to hand over these documents to the police for investigation," said a source.
Authorities said public awareness campaigns would be launched to caution residents against fraudulent agents who promise quick digital certificates.