[Reader-list] News Items posted on the net on Multipurpose National Identity Cards-25

[Taha Mehmood]

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040711/main2.htm

National ID-cards on anvil
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 10, 2004
The Centre is considering to issue multi-purpose national identity cards
(MNICs) to all citizens.

"Every person in the country will be provided national identity cards and
given a unique national identity number," Home Minister Shivraj Patil said
while inaugurating a seminar on Census data dissemination here.

A pilot project covering 30 lakh population spread over 13 states and union
territories is on. Its basic aim is to create a national population register
which will have both the national register of Indian citizens and that for
non-citizens.

The country's population is expected to overtake that of the most populous
country China in 2035.

The MNIC project, the minister said, would not only enhance the security
cover of the country but also facilitate the national level e-governance
programme which is one of the important agenda items of the Common Minimum
Programme to ensure that government services reach people in every nook and
corner.

The minister said the issue of giving voting rights to the citizens of
Indian origin overseas would be examined by the government in all
seriousness.

The new government was also in the process of looking at the issue of dual
passport to the NRIs.

Meanwhile, expressing concern over population explosion, Vice-President
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat today said Sanjay Gandhi's five-point programme,
including population control, was a good one but failed due to its improper
implementation.

"Sanjay Gandhi's programme was good but due to the atrocities committed by
the bureaucracy it could not be implemented," Mr Shekhawat said here.

He was inaugurating a conference on bio-diesel, organised by an
Allahabad-based NGO, Utthan, at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.

According to the latest estimates by the United Nations, India will overtake
China in 2035 when it reaches a population of 146 crore, which is about 50
per cent more than the population at the turn of this century, he said.
Mr Patil said in the past decade, there was an appreciable decline in the
growth rates in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and West
Bengal.