The Sub-Registrar office and its inefficiency have been reported by us and were immediately brought to the notice of the Planning and Statistics Department. The office immediately deputed extra staff to Margao and decided to clear out the backlog of over 45 days. No applications received before December 15, 2015 has been tended to.
“We deputed an additional nine staff to the office, the very next day after your article. Our staff from this Margao office was busy with national population census duty and hence the backlog. We’re now trying to clear all applications for certificates up to December 26, to reduce the backlog to 30 days. In fact we’re even working on January 26th and the general public can come and get their work done despite it being a public holiday,” explains Deputy Director of Planning and Statistics, Datta Prasad.
But sadly, two things are wrong in what Datta Prasad informs us.
Firstly, while his office claims to have deputed nine officers, Sub-Registrar Pissurlekar tells us that the Planning and Statistics Department has actually sent only five clerical staff to ease the backlog, which is not enough.
Also, Datta Prasad shows us a notice stating that the office will be open on Republic Day, but the notice is not put up on any notice board neither in the office nor in the Matanhy Saldanha Complex and nobody is aware that the office will be open on a public holiday.
“We’ve cleared most applications and we’re bringing down that gap. People are even being served and issued certificates out of turn. There are agents and touts from the Sub-Registrar office. I am personally supervising this work now to eliminate the interference of these people and hope we can serve the public better,” admits a dejected Datta Prasad.
