The District Administration Office (DAO) of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, is planning to keep all its records in a computerized system.

It has already been too late to keep records in computer and therefore the DAO has begun keeping the records of citizenships issued after the 2002 in the computer.

However, the task of searching old records has been a major headache for the officers.

"We need some 15 more staffers to cope with the present workload but that will not be needed if the computerized system is introduced," Chief District Officer of Kathmandu Sushil Ghimire told reporters on Sunday.

He said one could just imagine how the important records kept in the low quality papers and files have been saved for decades.

Ghimire said he submitted a proposal to the Home Ministry to computerize the DAO works two months ago.

The DAO needs some 3 million Nepali rupees (42,857 US dollars) for the task, Ghimire said.

Ghimire also pointed out the need to change the format of the citizenship certificate to prevent forgery.

The DAO issues about 130 citizenships a day, which is free of cost. Some 12 marriages are registered everyday.

All the work has been carried out by merely 40-strong manpower of the DAO, which is not sufficient to cope with the ever- increasing workload due to population growth, Ghimire added.

Source: Xinhua