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News Reports |
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Want to be domiciled? Go to the Collectorate & tear your hair out |
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Kalyani Chandorkar / expressindia.com | Sat, June 19 2004 |
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DEVENDRA Prabhakar Koli is acquainted with every nook and corner of the illustrious Collectorate: after all, for the past two months, even before his results were out, this engineering aspirant has been doing the rounds for a caste certificate that is vital to his admission. |
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But Koli has been refused one as he cannot produce his father's birth certificate - the record of which has been misplaced by the tehsildar's office. And since his dad didn't go to school, it isn't possible to produce a school-leaving certificate either.
"But as per the rules clearly printed on the form, I can produce my atya's (father's sister's) school leaving certificate, with proof of her caste. Beyond that, I've even produced my sister's caste certificate.Inspite of conclusively establishing my background, they have the nerve to ask me to produce my uncles' certificates. I have no uncles. Should I invent some?'' counters an agitated Devendra, holding up the printed refusal no.0400405020 by the collector's office. |
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We have it on good authority: for a 1001 mindnumbing reasons as to why you can't get a domicile or caste certificate, head straight to the Collectorate.
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And please don't nurture any absurd ideas of completing the formalities of admission in a day or two. Chances are they'll teach you a thing or two about lop-sided logic. By the time they're through with you, the term
"patience'' will acquire a whole new dimension. Oh, and if you're non-Maharashtrian, do carry a translator along to read out the rules to you. Or, better still, don't go at all. |
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Devendra's horror story is one of many: Doing the rounds of the collectorate are hassled residents of Pimpri-Chinchwad. Prakash Kumbhar and RK Sose.
"We went to the PCMC building, which made all the arrangements to host the collector's men. But none of them reached there. So we had to travel all the distance to the city. We accomplished nothing on Thursday since the power was out. Don't tell us, they can't afford a generator?'' they demand to know. That's precisely what Ashok Sonakul wishes to know. A tailor by profession, Ashok had to forgo a day's income for coming here; only to be confronted by the power cut.
"I'll have to come here again. And the day after that. Who's going to compensate my loss of income?,'' he asks despairingly. |
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"The people at the counters are obnoxious, besides being blind, of course,'' says a furious Suresh Chavada.
"For procuring a caste certificate for my son, I am supposed to produce the original copy of my birth certificate. Would you believe, they labelled it a fake and refused to attest it,'' he fumes, holding up an obviously original copy. |
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"They also refused to attest more than three copies of other vital documents. But I may need more copies in future. Who's going to come back then? The attestation over here is free; the greedy lawyers who are lurking outside charge Rs 5 per copy. I'm a painter by profession: it would have been a huge help to me if the lady at counter no. 20 had attested all of them,'' he says.
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Suresh Mirajkar laments that pursuing a domicile certificate for his son is an exercise in waste: he lives in a rented apartment and obviously cannot produce property tax/ electric bills-one for every year since 1993! |
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"But I'm showing them a bonafide certificate from my son's school which says that he was educated here, from nursery to standard XII. Then there's my ration card. So what is the problem?"
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As Koli points out: "They're demanding birth certificates of people's fathers. The Collectorate needs to do a reality check. Before 1950, many people from the economically weaker sections hadn't heard of the concept of a birth certificate. Let alone go to school. By refusing to acknowledge my female relatives, they're perpetuating backward practices. Above all, they're contradicting their own rules, which unambiguously state that I may submit my atya or sister's caste certificate.''
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As for the domicile, it is a mystery as to why all those documents are needed when all it needs to establish proof of residence is your ration card and school leaving certificate.
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DOMICILE CERTIFICATE
A certificate proving birth & residence/residence of Maharashtra for the last 15 years (this time around, they're saying 10 years, since 1993) |
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WHO AND WHY
To get preference for competitive engineering and medical seats |
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YOU NEED
* Electricity bill or receipt of property tax - one for each of the last 10 years since 1993
* Birth certificate and School leaving certificate/interim LC
* Ration card
* Birth certificate and school leaving certificate
* Father's birth certificate/ school leaving certificate.
In case your father was born after 1950, you'll have to show them your grandfather's documents, but the fineprint says other blood relations' certificates will do as well |
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