The pandemic began on 30th Jan 2020 with many deaths, in the country . Goa is no exception to date. The mental trauma and agonycaused on losing a bread winner needsimmediate redressal lest they fall prey to middleman. Providing a solatium atleast for a brief period of sixmonths to the bereaved members of the family either in cash or kind or both isthe need of the hour.
This writer has a vast experienceof attending to such unfortunate cases gratis . It begins with obtaining a clinicalcause of death certificate from the health centre / hospital and a deathcertificate from the o/o Civil cum sub registrar Many die intestate without makinga will. Then begins the process of Deedof succession etc If there is no valid nomination the financial institutions,banks, life insurance companies will not allow withdrawal of funds of thedeceased lying with them neither they would accept the installment of loans if any on behalf of the deceased. Transfer of vehicles owned by the deceased aresome of the areas. Therefore all life comes to a stand still. To add to these normalrequirements the real hitch is the certificate of divergency for name/sinappropriately spelt mostly by the dealing hands in the government, nonavailability of birth certificates on the pretext that the same are destroyedby none other than the government institutions who have an army of paidemployees responsible for the maintenance handling and upkeep of thesedocuments. The legal fraternity is oftenfound to be unscrupulous in this regard. It invariably puts the burden on their clients to attend to the nitty gritty ofobtaining these documents, but fordrafting a mere affidavit, etc or notorising a document charge well beyond the prescribed limit. While adopting acut and paste exercise of standard drafts readily available, for the mistakes thatcreeps in the blame is put on theunderpaid clerk working under them. Assuming but not admitting thattime is the essence for a legal practitioner to charge fees to add insult toinjury they do not provide receipts formonies received which is in total violation of Income tax rules. One way of assisting the familiesof the deceased COVID 19 victims, or othersimilar victims, would be that the present ruling dispensation should think ofan out of the box solution to this problem. Create HELP DESK initially for atleast an year with dedicated staff directlyunder the supervision and control of the Head of Department to ensure thatdocuments viz birth, marriage, death, divergency, Deed of succession etc are dealt with on toppriority. The respective MLAs shouldensure that they have staff to assist such families and Panchayats andmunicipal bodies too create such HELPDESKS Rewarding those that provideexemplary services would not be out of tune. As it is the Government has designated most of the staff in governmentservice as ‘frontline’ worker thoughthis appears to my mind a misnomer in comparison to those at the ground leveldirectly dealing with the affected persons. The Courts could also appointretired judges on contract to attend to inventoryproceedings on a day to day basis; as it was done in the past to tide over theback log. The Minister for Law andJudiciary , Urban Development and Panchayat could co-ordinate efforts in thisdirection and lead the nation to follow suit. GODFREY J I GONSALVES Cyberjourno social activist Borda Margao Goa India +91 9822158584 (24 hrs) [email protected]
