A Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) councillor who runs an orphanage asked deputy mayor Atin Ghosh about ways an orphan found abandoned on the street can get a birth certificate.

Biswarup De, the councillor from Ward 48, informed the deputy mayor on Wednesday that two boys in his orphanage had turned 18 and would now need birth certificates.

De, who raised the question at the KMC's monthly meeting of all councillors, said he had been trying in vain for three years to get them the certificates.

Ghosh, in charge of the KMC's health department, said a doctor had to write that the two were found on the street. The KMC can then move ahead and issue the birth certificates.

However, Dey doubted whether any doctor would readily want to take the responsibility.

As the KMC grapples with an increasing number of people applying for birth certificates — some have lost them, while others never got one issued, and many others have corrections to make — in the wake of fears sparked by the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR), the councillor's question left KMC officials without an immediate answer.

A KMC official told Metro it was difficult to issue a birth certificate if the child's place of birth is not known. "We issue birth certificates as per the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. The Act states that a municipal body or any urban local body can issue a birth certificate only if the child was born within the territorial jurisdiction of that local body," the official said.

"Unless the KMC knows if the child was born within the Calcutta municipal area, it cannot issue the birth certificate," said the official.

The official added that the KMC would have to seek legal clarification on what can be done in such a case. "I have to find out if the KMC had received a similar request earlier and how it was resolved in that case," the official said.

At the monthly meeting of councillors, De asked: "How does a child who was picked up from the street get a birth certificate?"

He later told Metro that the two boys would appear for their higher secondary exams next year. "Their names have to be enrolled in the voter's list as fresh voters. A birth certificate might be needed. I have been trying to get their birth certificates, but in vain."