HYDERABAD, Feb 21: The district council on Wednesday urged the National Database and Registration Authority to review it fees structure for the issuance of computerised birth certificates and also make arrangements for issuing death certificates.

Member Hussain Bux Hussaini tabled a resolution urging Nadra to review its fee structure for birth certificates, which he said had already approved by district government in an agreement with Nadra.

The authority should charge Rs20 for new registration up till for 180 days, Rs150 for registration after 181 days to one year and Rs200 for certificates issued after 366 days of birth, he suggested. He said that the district government had overstepped the prerogatives of union councils, which were solely responsible for issuing certificates, and said that the agreement should have been discussed in the council and publicised.

He stressed that people could not afford Nadra’s fees and urged the authority to charge only Rs25 for the registration and the new registration should not be chargeable as people were already paying for B-form.

Yamin Soomro backed the resolution saying that the nazim by taking unilateral decision on certificates had overlooked the union councils, which were the basic administrative units in the system. He called for cancellation of agreement and demanded that it be should be discussed in the council, which should approve new fees structure.

Dr. Arif Razmi supported the Nadra’s fee structure and insisted that it was neither expensive nor unconstitutional because the union councils still held the power to issue computerised certificates. The UCs had been issuing birth certificates often with fines running into thousands of rupees in many cases, he charged.

Ghulam Rasool Samoon and Rana Siddiqui said that the district government had enabled people to obtain computerised certificates and dismissed the allegation of overstepping their authority.

Supporting computerised certificates Rauf Jafri said that Nadra should ensure that the deadline for the issuance should be honoured and there should no delay on their part. The fee structure was a little bit vague and difficult for people to understand, he said. Mehboob Abro supported Mr Hussaini's demand that the authority should reduce fees and complained that Nadra had no offices in Hyderabad (rural) and Qasimabad talukas although the taluka municipal administrations were ready to provide them space for offices.