The Election Commission has planned to begin issuing Smart National Identity Cards to the people at no cost from March 26.
People will have a chance to correct the present information of their present cards before the Smart NIDs are issued, said Director General of the NID registration wing Brigadier General Sultanuzzaman Md Saleh Uddin at a press briefing at the commission yesterday.
“At present, a total of 9.60 crore voters are registered with the commission and 13% of them may need to change their details. These people can do so by submitting applications both online and offline.
“People will be able to get the new smart NID cards by returning the existing laminated ones,” he added.
Acting secretary of the commission Md Sirajul Islam said the move to issue smart NID cards was aimed at preventing fraud.
“It is easy to commit fraud with the existing cards and many people are using it illegally. But smart NIDs will come with 25 security features and eight others that meet international standards, making it very difficult and costly to make fake duplicates,” he said.
“It might not be possible to issue cards to all the citizens on March 26 which is why we will start with the eminent citizens on the Independence Day,” he added.
The authorities have taken the decision to provide smart NIDs as part of the Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) project.
With the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase, the Election Commission and Oberthur Technologies, a French company that provides digital security solutions, signed an agreement on January 14.
According to the deal, Oberthur Technologies will take Tk79626.78 lakh to make 90 million smart NIDs. The firm will take 18 months to deliver all the cards, with six million cards to be delivered each month.
Smart NIDs will have some 25 uses, including obtaining TIN number, driving licence, passport, submitting job applications, selling real state, opening bank accounts, insurance, marriage registration and divorce, immigration and admission to educational institutions.
This is a Tk137,919 lakh project and will be completed in June next year.
A committee was formed on this project which was comprised of teachers of Dhaka University and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, and officials of Bangladesh Computer Council, Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh Army, the NSI and the World Bank.
The commission says smart NIDs will lessen corruption in financial organisations and prevent child marriage.
