UNB, Dhaka :
The Election Commission will provide the upcoming smart national identity cards to residents of Dhaka city first. Before that, production of the cards with high security features will start in early September.
A decision to this effect was made at a meeting of the EC chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad on Monday.
The commission also decided to include two more security features – fingerprints of all 10 fingers and iris-scans of each cardholder, said sources inside the meeting. It also reached a decision to provide the smartcards to both fresh and old voters of the country. Distribution of the
smartcards among all citizens will start with President Abdul Hamid. After the meeting, Election Commissioner Shah Nawaz told reporters that a machine is being set up at the office of the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for producing the smartcard.
“We hope we’ll able to go into production of the smartcards at the end of this month or early next month. But the decision over the schedules of distribution has not been taken yet,” he said. He said the voters of Dhaka city will get the smartcards on priority basis.
There are now 96.2 million voters in the country. Of them, 92 million voters have already got laminated national identity cards. But some 4.2 million fresh voters who enrolled last have yet to get the national identity cards. If the smartcards are prepared, the commission will provide the smart cards in place of laminated ones to all citizens. The production cost of each smartcard will be two dollars. The citizens will get the cards free at first, but they will have to pay a fee in case they lose it or damage the card, necessitating a new one.
The Election Commission will provide the upcoming smart national identity cards to residents of Dhaka city first. Before that, production of the cards with high security features will start in early September.
A decision to this effect was made at a meeting of the EC chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad on Monday.
The commission also decided to include two more security features – fingerprints of all 10 fingers and iris-scans of each cardholder, said sources inside the meeting. It also reached a decision to provide the smartcards to both fresh and old voters of the country. Distribution of the
smartcards among all citizens will start with President Abdul Hamid. After the meeting, Election Commissioner Shah Nawaz told reporters that a machine is being set up at the office of the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for producing the smartcard.
“We hope we’ll able to go into production of the smartcards at the end of this month or early next month. But the decision over the schedules of distribution has not been taken yet,” he said. He said the voters of Dhaka city will get the smartcards on priority basis.
There are now 96.2 million voters in the country. Of them, 92 million voters have already got laminated national identity cards. But some 4.2 million fresh voters who enrolled last have yet to get the national identity cards. If the smartcards are prepared, the commission will provide the smart cards in place of laminated ones to all citizens. The production cost of each smartcard will be two dollars. The citizens will get the cards free at first, but they will have to pay a fee in case they lose it or damage the card, necessitating a new one.
