Bihar government today launched a month-long special campaign for registration of births to make people aware of the importance of birth certificate.
In the first phase, the campaign would be run for a month in government schools and in the second, in non-governmental schools, colleges and universities, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said at the launch of the campaign.
Brief messages would be given in Hindi on mobile phones about the significance of registration of births, he said, adding that nearly two crore students would be reached through the special drive.
The penalty for delayed registration of birth has been reduced from Rs 10 to Re 1, which would be borne by the state government, Kumar said.
He said that in rural areas, Aganwadi workers would be responsible in place of deputy registrar for registration of births and deaths within 21 days.
Aganwadi workers achieving 100 per cent birth registration in their area would be rewarded by the state government.
The Chief Minister handed over birth certificates to three girls.
He also inaugurated self-regulated weather centres for agriculture, disaster management and engineering work.
In the first phase, 50 self-regulated weather centres would be opened and in the next, the remaining 484 blocks would be covered by the Planning and Development department.