KMC helps man get death certificate of his father who passed away in 1972

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) helped a man obtain the death certificate of his father who passed away in 1972 when the family was residing in an area in South Kolkata that was under the then Jadavpur Municipality while KMC was being run by administrators as a result of being superseded by the then state government.

The citizen has sought the help of Mayor Firhad Hakim in obtaining the death certificate of his father. The person is presently residing at CIT Road in the Beleghata area. Highlighting his problem, he shared with Hakim that his father had passed away in 1972. At the time, the family was residing at Phoolbagan Road, which is in South Kolkata and not to be confused with the locality by the same name in North Kolkata. He told the Mayor that his father was cremated at Keoratala crematorium but due to certain circumstances, his death certificate could not be collected at the time.

The person shared that presently, he applied online for the certificate and had submitted all his documents.

He was also called to KMC headquarters where he was shown a copy of the certificate for verification of the spelling of his father’s name and other details. However, he was told that the address where the family resided in 1972 was out of KMC’s jurisdiction and hence he needed to get a letter from his local councillor.

KMC sources said that in 1972, the Phoolbagan Road in South Kolkata was under Jadavpur Municipality. It is learnt that the Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act 1980, which came into effect in 1984, extended the boundaries of Kolkata by including South Suburban, Garden Reach and Jadavpur municipalities in Kolkata.

With the amalgamation of erstwhile municipalities of Jadavpur, South Suburban, Garden Reach and Joka, the strength of the elected councillors was fixed at 144. Interestingly, the KMC archive also revealed that in 1972, the then-Calcutta Municipal Corporation was superseded by the state government and was run by administrators for the next 13 years. The Mayor has assured the citizen to collect the certificate from KMC headquarters on Monday.