ReliefWeb

The Government plans to complete the process of issuing Birth Certificates to all the citizens by the end of this year, Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs, Karu Jaysuriya said, adding the at present 94% of births are registered.

Accordingly, the Department of Registration of Persons will expedite the service of issuing Birth Certificates to the remaining one million in the local population, the Minister added.

Speaking at a media briefing held in Colombo yesterday the Register General of the Registrations of Persons' Department, E.M. Gunasekera said that the laws pertaining to the registration of births have not changed but the process has been streamlined to provide a more effective and efficient service.

He said special attention had been given to the estate sector and the North and East, where registration is lowest.

Minister Jayasuriya noted that authorities are well aware of the people who are trying to get Birth Certificates by providing forged documents to the Department.

He said that extra precautionary measures will be taken prior to the issuing of Birth Ceritificate and that applications suspect to be questionable will be strictly scrutinized.