Image: The placard asks by implication: When will you start issuing ‘Certificate of Absence’ (CoA) ©Sunanda Deshapriya.
The Government has extended, by two more years, legal provisions that enable issuance of a ‘Certificate of Absence’ (CoA) to families of war-time missing and disappeared persons. The Registrar-General’s Department issued a Gazette Extraordinary last Wednesday to extend the effective period of the Registration of Death (Temporary Provision) Act till December 9, 2021.
The Government recently announced an interim allowance of Rs.6,000 monthly to family members of missing or disappeared persons who have obtained a “Certificate of Absence” on behalf of their absent kin.
The disbursement of the interim allowance, which was one of the key recommendations made by the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) in its first interim report released in September 2018, will be implemented from next month.
The Government passed the Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provision) (Amendment) Act No.16 of 2016, to enable the Office of the Registrar General to issue a CoA to families of the missing and disappeared.