A young woman's attempt to verify her identity turned into an emotionally traumatic experience at a government office in Ranaghat, West Bengal, highlighting the rigid complexities of bureaucratic procedures.
Emotional Breakdown at SDO Office
An emotionally charged scene unfolded at the Ranaghat Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) office on Saturday. The incident occurred on the first day of hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. A 28-year-old woman, identified as Manu Mitra, broke down in tears after officials asked her to furnish documents related to her biological father.
The SIR process, a detailed verification drive, brought to light a long-standing complication in Manu's official records regarding her parentage.
The Core of the Documentation Conflict
According to official records, Manu Mitra was born in April 1997. Her birth certificate and school admission documents clearly mention Prabir Das as her father. However, a family situation created a discrepancy in her later life documents.
Manu's mother and her biological father, Prabir Das, had separated even before her birth. Her mother later married Timir Ghosh Pal. Consequently, Manu and her mother's crucial identity documents, such as their Aadhaar cards and voter IDs, were issued using the credentials of her stepfather, Timir Ghosh Pal.
During the SIR hearing, officials reportedly insisted on verification linked solely to the biological father named on the birth certificate. They asked Manu to submit documents pertaining to Prabir Das, including his death certificate. While Das had passed away, Manu explained that obtaining his death certificate after so many years was not a feasible task for her.
Compounding Complications and Mental Stress
The issue became further entangled because Manu's mother's name did not appear in the 2002 electoral roll, adding another layer of difficulty to the verification. Officials refused to accept any documents related to her stepfather during the hearing.
For Manu, who is now married and has changed her surname post-marriage, this bureaucratic demand placed her under severe mental stress. The situation forced her to prove a familial link to a man she never knew, based on documents that are decades old and difficult to procure.
This case underscores the human cost of inflexible administrative systems that often fail to account for complex, real-life family situations, leading to public distress during essential citizen verification processes.
