ECs smart natl ID card project falters
UNB
The Election Commission has failed to initiate the distribution of smart national identity cards (NIDs) among citizens despite its plan to complete it by June last, reports UNB.
EC officials now say the Commission will soon start the distribution of machine readable cards to replace the existing laminated ones, but there is no timeline to launch it.
Well start the distribution of smart cards very soon, but theres no specific date, said EC Secretary Sirazul Islam.
The EC will provide the high security featured cards in Dhaka and Panchargar or any northern district first. Itll take al least 18 months to complete the distribution work, he told UNB. In January 2015, a French digital security company, Oberthur Technologies, got the Tk 796-crore contact for production and distribution of 90 million smart NID cards with 25 security features within 18 months.
The firm was scheduled to start the smart NID card production in September 2015 with a target to produce six million cards a month.
As the Commission failed to distribute the smart cards within the stipulated time, the IDEA project period was extended to December 2017 from the July 2016 a few months back.
A team of the World Bank, the co-financer of the project, also reviewed its overall progress in June last. Besides, an EC team, led by EC Secretary Sirazul Islam, has recently visited France to gather knowledge about the production and distribution of smart cards.
The 10-digit smart cards will be distributed free under the ECs Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) project.
The smart card will have multipurpose uses in getting services like TIN number, driving licence, passport, opening bank accounts, marriage registration and admission to educational institutions.
Now some 92 million out of the countrys 100 million voters have laminated the laminated NID cards inscribed with the names of voters and their parents, dates of birth, addresses of the voters and their ID numbers.
The remaining eight million voters are yet to get the laminated NID cards as the Commission keeps halted the distribution of the cards saying that the voters will be provided with smart cards. The voters having no NID card are facing immense sufferings in availing themselves of various civic services.
The Commission in 2011 worked out a plan to provide the smart card under the IDEA project, which is jointly sponsored by the World Bank and the government of Bangladesh.
In 2007, the previous commission, headed by Dr ATM Shamsul Huda, introduced the NID card service with the help of the army before the 2008 parliamentary elections.
