Cuttack, March 25: The municipal corporation has urged hospitals and nursing homes in the city to register births and deaths online.

After April 1, the civic body will not allow health care delivery institutions to furnish the corporation hard copies for registration of births and deaths. All matters in this connection have to be done online.

"The decision has been taken to ensure that birth and death certificates are issued online and people can receive certificates the same day under the e-municipality application project," municipal commissioner Gyana Das told The Telegraph.

"As part of the e-governance initiatives, efforts are on to ensure that by the end of April, applicants can apply online and download birth and death registration certificates from the official website of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation," Das said.

Yesterday, the commissioner had directed the city health officer to communicate with the health care delivery institutions - government and private - on a priority basis.

The direction was issued in pursuance of a housing and urban development department letter which said: "Birth and death certificates are required to be issued online from April 1."

While adopting the e-municipality application the civic body had already succeeded in roping in most of the health care delivery institutions in the online registration mode.

According to official sources, while there were more than 150 such institutions, nearly 20 per cent were not sending their birth and registration data online to the city health office.

The adoption of the online process had been delayed because the corporation's health wing had initially opposed the move. Later, they changed their minds after persuasion from senior officers. Subsequently, the staff was also given training on the process.

At present, the e-municipality application of Cuttack Municipal Corporation is being processed by the Tata Consultancy Service and Ordisha Governance Services Limited, a part of Odisha Computer Application Centre.

City health officer P.K. Pradhan said: "Almost all manual practices have been done away with to streamline the certificate issuing process. Once the online module system is fully adopted, certificates can be produced in a single day."

Official sources said around 23,000 births and 11,000 deaths were registered last year, but 15 and 40 per cent of the certificates respectively had not been issued so far.

Preparation of a complete database on births and deaths is nearing completion. The data since 1985 have already been uploaded as part of the streamlining of the online registration process.

At present, people have to visit the birth and death registration office counters at Binu Bhavan (Cuttack Municipal Corporation headquarters) at Choudhury Bazaar and Vikash Bhavan at Khannagar.