THE good news is that we have come of age in matter of Digitalization. Bad news is: efforts are not up to the mark. The government is taking costly smart card project that covers automation making things transparent and efficacious. The initiative came off with inauguration of the new government in the wake a caretaker government assisted by the army. It was newly formed EC that held general election under the Caretaker Government.
This initiative was indeed a vital thing to be done for a nation. Positively looking at it, this might render great services to our people, help planning state affairs and public services. Also this will, of course, help ensure a crime free polity and society. But though initial database nation wide was prepared, it was evidently not being updated. The agencies involved has failed to keep up with the momentum. The malaise was noticed in updated electoral rolls in the last January election putting the efficacy of the card in question.
The EC has apparently put in place a moratorium on the nature of rendering national identification services and announced charges up to thousand taka for the same to the chagrin of the people in general. Commercialization is obvious here. The commission has indicated its plan to make the project more inclusive by including below 18 young generation. This will take several hundred crore taka to deal with. But the capacity building is lacking; planned and careful segmentation is needed. What transpired from the statement of Secretary of the EC is: they are planning more technical things for inclusion in the Card. It is clear, there is more things on the card and focus of the project is, therefore, under strain. So there is talk of failure to deliver goods.
The interim government under its term was bound to hold a free election. A number of new electronic devices came up for consideration to make the election corruption free. First, there came the talk of EVM – the electronic device for poll and vote counting. But EVM was used at the start selectively and then abandoned. This application apparently failed. What is even dismaying was that the NID (National Identity Card) which was pompously claimed, it would eliminate rigging of votes. However, in most cases, the election officials were seen to ignore the card itself!
Now we see the EC has extended its TOR, that is, they are going to be involved with the minors! If the commission is EC, how can they take us to cases beyond their jurisdiction, particularly, when they are overburdened with electoral responsibilities? The tasks of the Commission must have a relevance and context. Or otherwise, its failure might continue to stay nightmarishly endemic.
