[Reader-list] News Items posted on the net on Multipurpose National Identity Cards-124

[Taha Mehmood]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Surat/Coastal-villagers-of-Gujarat-to-get-unique-identity-card-next-year/articleshow/4628463.cms


SURAT: Central government's massive exercise of providing unique
multi-purpose national identity cards to coastal villagers in the wake
of 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai has been initiated in Gujarat.

The Central government has asked collectors of seven districts to
provide the details of coastal villages falling under their
jurisdiction by February 1, 2010.

At the one-day all India conference on National Population
Registration (NPR) held at New Delhi on June 3, the collectors of
Bharuch, Surat, Valsad, Navsari, Kutch, Jamnagar and Junagadh have
been asked to complete the exercise of collecting the database of the
coastal villagers in four months starting from October 2009.

The unique identity card is an integral part of the ongoing
Multi-Purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) scheme, and will be issued
to citizens living in coastal villages of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa,
Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal
by 2010. The Union Territories, which will be covered under the first
phase, are Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Andaman
& Nicobar Islands.

Official sources said the population of around 2.5 lakh people in 83
coastal villages in Surat's Olpaad and Choriyasi taluka will be
covered under the Central government's unique identity card scheme by
2010. The initial plan is to cover the coastal villages to avoid
terrorists taking the sea route once again.

The identification number will be provided by National Authority for
Unique Identity (NAUID), an entity under Planning Commission. It will
work in coordination with the office of the Registrar General of India
(RGI), which has been working on the National Population Register.
Identity cards proposed to be issued will be micro-processor
chip-based cards, which will have information of each individual,
his/her finger biometric as well as a photograph.

"The project is of a national importance and we are committed to
complete the task by February 1," said Dilip Raval, collector, Surat.

According to Raval, the task will be completed in two phases
enumerator training programme and listing and numbering of the houses
in coastal villages.

A unique National Identity Number' will be assigned to each individual
including those below 18 years of age. This number will become a link
number' with any other application of the state government.