Millions await National ID card in Bangladesh

Jamalpur’s Sultan Faijul was elated when he became a voter on 12 Oct, 2014.

But he is yet to get his National ID card, without which he cannot avail many basic services like buying a mobile phone SIM card.

Faijul is not alone.

Nearly ten million citizens are suffering for the last two years, having failed to get their National ID card.

The Election Commission (EC) says almost 90 percent of Bangladesh 100 million voters have their laminated National ID cards or NID by now.

But 10 million are still suffering because without the NID, they can’t avail many basic services.

They are stuck as the government initiated a project to replace the laminated ID cards with slick, machine-readable and counterfeit-proof ‘smart cards’.

But EC is unable to say when they will actually start distributing those to the voters.

“The decision will be taken after discussion with the Commission,” EC’s NID Wing Director Syed Mohammad Musa told bdnews24.com.

A deal was signed with France-based Oberthur Technologies in January 2014 for producing these cards with a three-tier security.

The project’s tenure was extended by another one and a half year in late 2015. The EC now says they want to complete the job by December 2017.

This is a huge task. We cannot give a specific date when the distribution of smart cards will start,” said Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmad.

Law Minister Anisul Huq told Parliament on Jan 26 that the smart card project would cost Tk 13.79 billion.