Patna, Jan. 18: The onset of the admission season in schools has triggered a rush for parents at Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC), seeking birth certificates for their wards.

Many of those who queued up at the counter of the civic body for birth certificates today were preparing to admit their children to various schools in the city.

The PMC, clearly, was at a loss and struggled to control the situation. The Telegraph today came across a number of people at the civic body who complained the process of issuing certificates was “too slow and troublesome”.

Deepak Sharma, a lecturer with a private engineering institute in the city, applied for the birth certificate on January 2, a day after he became the father of a baby girl. He said that he had been having a difficult time ever since he applied for the important piece of paper, as he kept looking for it in a pile of certificates carelessly kept on one of the desks in the tiny, dingy room of the section. He was eventually asked to come later.

Many like Sharma jostled with each other to look for the certificates for their little ones.

PMC officials admitted that there was “too much rush” and the burden on the employees was “very high”. “They (the employees) are struggling to cater to the need of those who are in a hurry to get the certificates.

Dr Sudheer Kumar, the registrar of the section, told The Telegraph: “Earlier, the number of daily applicants used to be around 60 to 70. There has been more than 100 per cent rise in the number of applications in the past 10-15 days. On top of that, everybody asks for the certificates to be issued in a day or two. It becomes very average in that case. On an average, we take about 10 days to issue a certificate after receiving the application.”

There are just two assistants to handle the applications and issue the certificates — one of them receives the application, while the other is responsible for preparing the computerised certificates at a different floor of the PMC headquarters at Budha Marg.

Mohammad Parvez, the assistant registrar who single-handedly deals with the people said it was difficult to give quality service to the people under such circumstances.

“We are trying our best to ease the trouble, which the people have to face. But because of acute shortage of manpower in the section, I have to do all things myself, which sometimes leads to a lot of chaos. When it becomes impossible to manage the crowd, I ask the security guard to help people find their certificates,” he said.

Parents said they way people tried to look for the certificates for their children, it was very easy for the papers to be misplaced.

Niraj Kumar Trivedi, who is looking to get his daughter admitted to Lower KG in a school, said: “I have come here for the first time. I am worried at the commotion at this place.”

Sanjay Kumar Jha, a lawyer, said he had come to PMC for the second time to obtain his daughter’s birth certificate. “I looking to get my daughter into Carmel High School, for which I need the birth certificate. This is the second day I have come here and I hope I get it today.”

Some of those who came to PMC were, however, luckier than many others.

Meena Kumari, who wishes to get her son admitted in Class IV in a wing of DAV Public School, had come from Transport Nagar, about 6km away from the corporation office. Kumari said: “I had to visit the office of the sub-divisional officer several times. Thankfully, I have received the certificate.”

Kumari added that it was not easy to get wardsadmitted to schools and one had to make number of efforts at each andevery step.