Dalit driver kin denied death certificate

Kakinada: The family of Veedhi Subrahmanyam is unable to get a death certificate because officials were passing the buck, though he was murdered last week and his last rites were performed at his native village in Gollalamamidada of Pedapudi mandal in Kakinada district earlier this week.

Subrahmanyam was the Dalit youth for whose murder YSR Congress MLC Anantha Udaya Bhaskar is in jail.

Who should issue the death certificate has become the point of contention among officials. Pedapudi tahsildar T. Subhash directed G. Mamidada panchayat secretary Yaswant to issue the death certificate, but official refused stating that the death did not happen in his jurisdiction.

The tahsildar wrote to Kakinada revenue divisional officer B.V. Ramana against Yaswanth, pointing out that the body of Subrahmanyam was cremated at G. Mamidada Village. Despite this he was hesitating to give the death certificate.

“The family members of the deceased have been wandering in the gram panchayat office for the past four days from Sunday, seeking the death certificate to get other benefits. The panchayat secretary is very reluctant and he is not receiving the application,” the tahsildar wrote the the RDO.

“After repeated instructions and requests from the deputy tahsildar, tahsildar and even the mandal parishad development officer (MPDO), to receive the application and issue the certificate or an endorsement to the applicant explaining the circumstances which prevented him from doing so, he (village secretary Yaswant) did not respond and not even receive the application from the family members of the deceased,”Subhash wrote.

“This is very unbecoming on the part of the panchayat secretary. The family members of the deceased are suffering from the indecent attitude of the village secretary of G. Mamidada,” Subhash stated in his letter to the RDO.

But, Kakinada divisional panchayat officer Y. Ammaji supported the village secretary’s stand. She told Deccan Chronicle that the official should not issue the death certificate as the death had  not taken place at the village. She said that the death certificate should be issued at the municipality, where he died.
But, according to the confession statement of the accused Bhaskar, the death took place at Sriramnagar under Two Town police station limits, but the case was registered under Sarpavaram police station limits.

A senior panchayat officer told Deccan Chronicle that, according to panchayat raj rules, if any person dies in another place and the cremation or final rites are performed in the native village, the death certificate can be given by the panchayat secretary. But, in medico-legal cases, the municipalities concerned or the hospital where the post-mortem has been conducted would give the death certificate.