Craze in Salcete for Portuguese passportPublished on Wednesday, 07 August 2013
11:43The craze among the people of Salcete taluka to seek Portuguese passport
is evident from the fact that 150 marriage certificates and teors are
obtained from the office of civil registrar cum sub-registrar, Salcete,
everyday. The civil registrar cum sub-registrar, Salcete, Suraj Vernekar
informed that these two certificates are compulsorily used for the purpose
of documentation so as to obtain the Portuguese passport.Portuguese passport
is a gateway to Europe for Goans whose parents or grandparents were born
during the Portuguese regime and whose marriage was registered during that
period in Goa. Copies of marriage certificates and teors of applicants’
parents or grandparents authenticate the claim of the applicants for Portuguese
passport.Teor is a copy of the marriage book, which contains signatures of the
marrying couple. An English translation along with the teor is issued by the
office. It issued 15,300 such marriage certificates and teors during the
last seven months, and most of the applicants sought the certificates to apply
for the Portuguese passport.Goan Catholics add baptism and marriage
certificates issued by church offices to support their documentation with
the hope of getting the passport faster. However, the mutilated records with
the Salcete civil registrar and sub-registrar office deject the certificate
seekers.“As the government office has failed to maintain the records we are
forced to go to church offices to get the baptism and marriage certificates,
which are considered authentic,” said Joe D’Costa, a certificate seeker from
Margao. “The records from 1966 to 1970 are mostly mutilated. We, therefore,
don’t have proper records of those marriage certificates,” agreed Vernekar.
The applicants who apply for copies of marriage certificates and teors issued
during this particular period are directly told that the documents are not
available, Vernekar said.The Catholics seek to get baptism and marriage
certificates from the church to get around the problem,Sources informed that on
an average, 250 such certificates are obtained from various churches in
Salcete taluka in a week. Very few parishes allow the applicants to inspect
church record books and have a photocopy of the certificate, while the others
allow photographers they trust to have a photocopy of the certificate. The
Archbishop had asked the churches to follow some guidelines while allowing
photocopying of the documents.Non-Catholic applicants don’t have this option so
they register the birth in the court and complete the re-registration
process.Sources informed that the office of civil registrar cum sub-registrar
does not have the marriage records for the period of 1994 to 1998 despite the
books being new.“It could be the folly and failure of those staff, who worked
here in registering the marriages…” Vernekar stated. [NT]
