Smart NIDs risk having huge erroneous data
Dhaka: The Election Commission looks set to introduce smart national identity (NID) cards in September next without correcting the erroneous data of voters which are feared to only worsen public sufferings.
As the data of voters had not been updated during the previous updating exercise of the electoral rolls after the introduction of laminated NID card in 2007, many cards contain misspellings and erroneous data or low quality photos, creating problems for the citizens while availing of any service.
Everyday hundreds of people stand in a long queue at the EC’s National Identity Registration Wing office in the city’s Agargaon area just to have their NID cards corrected.
According to NID wing statistics, 344 people have got their cards corrected on 11 August, while 375 on 12 August and 486 on 13 August last.
Besides, many people, particularly the illiterate and rural poor, are not aware enough about it and reluctant about having their erroneous NID cards corrected spending money and time.
Moshiur Rahman, a lawyer by profession, recently stood in a queue in front of the EC’s National Identity Registration Wing office to have his wife’s NID card corrected, as it contained spelling mistake in her name.
Moshiur, a resident of Malibagh in the capital, told UNB that it was not his wife’s mistake but of enumerators or technicians who wrote ‘Sharmin Akhter’ instead of ‘Sharmin Akter’.
He mentioned that there was a big mistake in the NID card of his mother, Mazeda Hossain, as her age was written 70, making her seven years’ senior to his father, Morad Hossain, who is now 63.
Shafiqur Rahman Bhuyan, who came at the NID wing for getting his father’s name corrected in his card on the same day, expressed his anger saying, ‘Why do we have to spend two days for correcting the mistakes made by the Election Commission?’
‘The EC should have taken an initiative for correcting the erroneous cards during the ongoing voter list updating programme as enumerators as we’re not responsible for such errors in most cases,’ he added.
Like them, many people have got NID cards with erroneous data. If the smart NID card is prepared based on the old data stored in the EC’s server, it will turn out to be a matter of wastage of money and increasing people’s sufferings as they will have to count Tk 200-400 fee for the correction from 1 September next.
The commission has imposed the fees considering the production cost of smart NID cards as each card, equipped with microchip and 2D barcode, will cost more than one dollar.
Sought comment in this regard, EC Secretary Sirazul Islam said, ‘How can we identify the people having erroneous data in their NID cards?’
He told UNB that people would have the scope to get the smart NID cards corrected like the existing system. ‘But, they’ll have to pay fees from September next.’
For having a NID card corrected, one will have to pay Tk 200 in fee for the first time, Tk 300 for the second time and Tk 400 after it is already done twice.
Oberthur Technologies, a French digital security company, got the TK 796-crore contact for the production and distribution of 90 million smart NID cards with 25 security features within 18 months.
The firm is scheduled to start the production of machine readable smart NID cards at the beginning of September and will produce six million cards each month.
Instead of laminated NID cards printed on normal paper, the 10-digit smart cards will first time be distributed free under the EC’s Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) project.
The World Bank is providing $195 millions for implementation of the 219-million project.
The smart card will have multi-purpose uses in getting services like TIN number, driving licence, passport, opening bank accounts, marriage registration and admission in educational institutions.
Some 92 million voters, out of the country’s 96.2 million, have received laminated NID cards since 2007.