India, July 21 -- The BMC's crackdown following the detection of nearly 20,000 allegedly bogus birth certificates dominated discussions in the civic body's House on Monday, with corporators across party lines alleging that while the investigation into the fraud was necessary, innocent citizens were bearing the brunt of delays, technical glitches and procedural bottlenecks in obtaining or correcting their birth certificates.

Corporators pointed out that the transition from the BMC's SAP-based registration system to the Civil Registration System (CRS) had resulted in citizens struggling to obtain corrected birth certificates due to technical issues, lack of editing rights at the ward level and a growing backlog of applications. The investi...