Alhaji Awudi Yeremiah, Deputy Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Environment has said that birth registration was the first step towards ensuring the rights of the child prescribed in the Children’s Act 1998 (Act 560). He said the Ministry was committed to revamping the Births and Deaths Registry to enable it to generate timely and reliable statistical measurements about the country’s population to facilitate development-planning. Alhaji Yeremiah expressed worry about the practice where Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians were engaged in the use of fraudulent documents, of which the birth certificate was prime to obtain travel and other identification documents in the country. He said plans were far advanced to clamp down on such criminals with the introduction of the National Identification exercise. The Minster also condemned the common practice of people burying their dead relatives without registering them and said it was against the law. He announced that registration of death within seven days after the occurrence of the event was free and urged the public to take advantage of it. Alhaji Yeremiah said the proper registration of births and deaths in the country would help give credibility to the country’s electoral register, ensure equitable distribution of national resources and "even arguments about the ages of our junior football team players and other sportsmen." Mr. Joseph Kwaku Nayan, Deputy Volta Regional Minister, urged the Births and Deaths Registry to negotiate with the Ghana Heath Service to locate Registry offices close to labour wards of health facilities to ensure instant registration of births. Mr. Stephen Amoah, official of the Births and Deaths Registrar, said inadequate staff and logistics for monitoring and supervision and the non-existence of new offices in deprived areas were affecting the work of the Registry. He urged all stakeholders to support the Registrar to enable it to continue to gather timely and relevant data on births and deaths. Source: GNA