Whereas the actual citizens of the country face all different sorts of hassles in collecting birth and death certificates, how come the Rohingya citizens get National Identity Cards or NIDs so easily? There’s no doubt about the fact that an organised ring is behind all these. Not any random person is supposed to get an NID just like that.
The responsibility of verifying the fact if the applicant actually is a genuine citizen of Bangladesh rely with the local government agency or the city corporation. If they had performed their duty with integrity, the Rohingyas wouldn’t have gotten their hands on the NIDs. They are also having their passports made showing those NIDs. Sometimes, they are getting caught yet there’s no end to this fraud.
Prothom Alo reports that forty nine of the Rohingyas taking refuge in Bangladesh have been given birth registration from the health department of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC). The matter has been reported in a letter sent to DNCC executive officer from the office of the registrar general under the birth and death registration wing of the local government division on 5 June.
The letter sent to Dhaka North City Corporation asking for an explanation states that the special branch (SB) of Bangladesh police has reported about 49 Rohingya citizens having had their birth registration done from DNCC. It also ordered the registrars and assistant registrars, who were in charge at the time of providing birth certificates to those Rohingyas, to appear at the registrar general’s office for explanation.
Chief health officer of Dhaka north city Brigadier General Imrul Kayes told Prothom Alo that the birth registration numbers sent from the registrar general’s office has been reviewed. There’s no existence of those numbers in the server. He also claimed those birth certificates to be illegal.
The responsibility of verifying the fact if the applicant actually is a genuine citizen of Bangladesh rely with the local government agency or the city corporation. If they had performed their duty with integrity, the Rohingyas wouldn’t have gotten their hands on the NIDs.
A letter sent from the Special Branch of Bangladesh police to the registrar general of birth and death registration on last 26 May stated that as many as 102 persons have had Bangladeshi passports made by collecting birth registration certificates in illegal ways from different parts of the country. The permanent addresses mentioned in the passports of those persons were not found to be true during investigation.
The allegation of providing the Rohingyas with birth certificates isn’t brought against the Dhaka North City Corporation alone. A number of other agencies are involved in this. There have been incidents of them being provided with NIDs from different offices of the Election Commission as well. Though, action has been taken against some, it hasn’t made much of a difference to the whole situation.
Dhaka North City Corporation claims that no birth certificate has been collected from their server under any of the accused’s names. However, one employee was sacked and an officer was suspended in February last year for committing forgery in birth registration. Why were they reinstated? Have they been able to prove themselves innocent?
For some, their personal gain becomes greater than the national interest. It doesn’t even need an explanation, how much they are putting the country in harm’s way just by issuing a fake birth certificate.
Actually, a cluster of officials in the organisations engage in public service get involved in different fraud, irregularities and corruption whenever they find a chance. For them, their personal gain becomes greater than the national interest.
It doesn’t even need an explanation, how much they are putting the country in harm’s way just by issuing a fake birth certificate. Earlier, two brothers of former army chief Aziz Ahmed had also made NIDs under fake identities. Let the local public representatives and employees of the concerning organisations, who are involved in such fraudulent activities be brought to justice.
Everyone concerned including the election commission and the city corporations have to be alert so that no foreign citizen can get NIDs or passports made by showing forged birth certificates. Those involved in these wrongdoings must also be brought to justice. As soon as a few get exemplary punishment, the others won’t find the courage to commit this type of crimes against national interests.