Act to save damaged records gathering dust

Act to save damaged records gathering dust
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, AUG 19
Where is the Goa Reconstruction of Registers and Records Act, 2005?  Has the 2005 Act and the Rules framed in 2008 been confined to the record books by the government instead of implementing  it to help reconstruct torn and mutilated records in the offices of sub registrars.
It seems so, as the government has been dragging its feet to set up a mechanism to enforce the law, which could have helped save precious documents lying in ruins in sub registrar offices.
State Registrar, V G Salkar was candid in admitting that the Goa Reconstruction of Registers and Records Act, 2005 has not been enforced till date. Another senior officer informed that the act could not be implemented since the last half decade for want of any mechanism.
According to Salkar, the post of deputy district registrar has been created only a couple of months ago. “A deputy district registrar is a competent authority to decide applications received from the offices of sub registrars for reconstruction of the documents. Since the post is finally created, the Act will be implemented in the forceable  future”, he said, adding that the deputy district registrar will be required to sit in the office of the Directorate of Planning and Statistics
Herald, however, understands that it may take time for the law to be finally given effect as the post of the deputy district registrar will have to be filled up by the Goa Public Service Commission. “Yes, the post of deputy district registrar is a gazetted post. It has to be filled up by the GPSC”, Salkar said, adding that it may take a couple of months before the post is filled up and the mechanism established to implement the Goa Reconstruction of Registers and Records Act.
What has surprised present and past officials is the inordinate delay by the government to give effect to a law which was passed half-a-decade ago.  “First, the act was not implemented on the pretext that the rules were not framed by the government. However, though the Rules were in place since 2008, the act still remains unimplemented till date”, lamented an official.
Hundreds of documents, including registers of births and deaths, marriages, and others have been rendered redundant for want of any proper maintenance. At the Salcete sub registrar’s office, the scenario is going from bad to worse with every passing day for want of any maintenance.
In fact, the sub registrar has admitted that his office is flooded with inquiries almost every day over missing documents, including births and deaths.