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Vamsi
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Branched covers of compact Riemann surfaces

Let $S$ be a compact R.S of genus $\geq 2$. In the paper "Stable and unitary vector bundles on compact Riemann surfaces" (by Narasimhan and Seshadri), they claim that there is a branched covering map from the upper half plane to $S$ which is ramified at exactly one point (with index $N$) (i.e. $S$ is the quotient of $\mathbb{H}$ by the group $\langle A_i, B_i, C \vert \Pi [A_i, B_i] = C, [A_i,C] = [B_i, C] = I \rangle$). I am not able to access the reference (Grothendieck) pointed out in that paper. Is there any other reference (or any easy proof of this?) ? Also, does a similar fact hold for non-compact Riemann surfaces (compact minus a finite collection of points).

Vamsi
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