Birth certificates in five minutes

GALLE: The long wait for citizens in Galle to obtain birth, death and marriage certificates is over. A World Vision Lanka funded project now enables residents to receive a printed copy of those documents in less than five minutes. Previously, only residents in Colombo had access to this service.

The database, capable of storing and retrieving digitised versions of birth, death, marriage and other certificates, was officially launched by Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister Karu Jayasuriya, at a ceremony at the Galle Divisional Secretariat recently.

The Minister noting that the new database system was implemented in Galle without direct Government funding for the project said: "The Galle Government Agent had set an example by working with World Vision Lanka and SED-Galle to minimise the burden on Government".

Clocking just three and a half minutes in issuing the first birth certificate, an impressed Minister added that though "... in the past where it had taken more than five days and in some occasions even more than five months to issue a birth certificate ... the delay has now been cut down to just five minutes".

The need to obtain birth, death and marriage certificate increased significantly following the tsunami and a computerised system was required to meet hundreds of requests especially those submitted by tsunami affected families.

The new database system issues birth, death, marriage certificates in five minutes, valuation certificates and revenue licenses in 10 minutes. Around 500,000 individuals are set to benefit from this new database system.

Also present at the ceremony were Technical and Vocational Training Minister Piyasena Gamage, National Rebuilding Minister Gunaratne Weerakoon, Minister of Agriculture Hemakumara Nanayakkara, Deputy Minister of Social Service and Social Welfare Lionel Premasiri and World Vision Lanka National Director Yullwa Li.