Theyre selling like Kerala chips now!

KOCHI: With the minimum qualification to get a visa to other countries being raised to SSLC level, the fake certificate business is flourishing in the city. NORKA Roots, the certificate verification authority under the government, gets many such certificates from the authentication centers in the city.The racket is mostly carried out along with smaller travel agencies. A forged MBA or MBBS certificate is available for Rs 5,000. The same goes for most other degrees. For SSLC and +2 certificates, the charge is merely Rs 3000. And these will be delivered in three weeks time. The PhD certificates of national and international universities are available for anything from Rs 7000 to 8000.An average of more than 10 lakh Malayalis fly to other countries seeking jobs every year. This has led to a boom in the demand for fake certificates and mostly SSLC certificates. The racketeers forging the certificates have the seal of top universities and educational boards in the country.Authentication Officer, C S Mohanan said that the rise in the cases of fake certificates is a direct result of strict regulations being enforced for visa.  “We get several such cases each week. These are computer made certificates which are hard to detect. Even we have received PhD certificates of top university in the country.  People buy them because by using them they can easily get promotions in other countries. We’ve seen several cases where certificates of best universities in the country have been forged. NORKA has always been strict when we detect the fraud. We hand over such cases to police who investigate it further,” said C S Mohanan.Another major difficulty before the NORKA is that it still has no advance technique other than proof checking to trace fake certificates. “We have to bring it to the  government’s notice that forged certificates are being made with advanced technology. Authentication centres should be equipped with advanced computer and gadgets to detect accurately. But other than proposals, the government has done nothing in this regard,” said a passport officer on condition of anonymity.