LAHORE - A cheque of Rs1.273 millions, issued by the Health Department of City District Government for the payment of outstanding dues of birth certificate papers, purchased from National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), has been dishonoured on Thursday, sources informed The Nation. Earlier, Dr Fiaz Ahmed Ranjha, Executive District Officer (EDO) Health in this regard said that NADRA authorities should adopt legal and proper process to get outstanding dues and for the purpose they should send a formal bill to the authorities concerned so that CDG could pay such amount without any delay. The sources further said that District Officer (DO) Public Health Shahid Ikram issued the cheque on Wednesday evening and handed over to authorities concerned of NADRA. However, when the officials of NADRA deposited cheque in the concerned bank for getting payment, the bank dishonoured the cheque. They said that the NADRA officials contacted the officer concerned and informed him about the situation. On which, he requested them not to take any legal action in this regard and further promised them to deposit amount in the bank soon. It is pertinent to mention here that NADRA had refused to provide special papers for the 'birth certificates to the City District Government on non-payment of such outstanding dues on Wednesday and as such the CDG could not issue any certificate during the last week due to unavailability of special papers, causing huge inconvenience for the applicants. Earlier, NADRA was providing special papers to the CDG, which issues birth certificates to the applicants. NADRA on the basis of such birth certificates issues 'B form, which is compulsory for certain matters including appearance in the examinations of Intermediate and Secondary Education Board as well as issuance of National Identity Card and visas of various countries as well. The insiders said that the District Officer (DO) Public Health Dr Shahid Ikram did not deposit even a single penny out of revenue collected from issuance of birth certificate since the last seven/eight months. Despite the refusal of issuance of special papers by NADRA, the official concerned did not take any notice of the situation. However, Executive District Officer (EDO) Health Dr Fiaz Ahmed Ranjha said in this regard that the entire issue including non-availability of application forms and issue of non-payment of any outstanding dues of NADRA in fact was not in his notice but he would definitely pursue the matter. However, the insiders further said that the official of the Health Department of CDG still are issuing receipts of birth certificates on simple papers and are charging birth certificate fee from the applicants unlawfully.