Noman Mosharef :
A fraud gang has been active in online platform luring people with offering assistance over National Identity Card (NID) related services. In this backdrop Election Commission (EC) has warned the citizens to be careful about the fraud gang.
However, EC has kept active NID-related services amid lockdown when the country is facing serious setback to control the surge of deadly Covid-19.
EC officials said if anyone writes ‘NID CORRECTION’ in facebook search option, he/she will see there are a lot of groups offering the same services. There are advertising their activities in their own way regarding the NID related services. Officials said, EC is the only authority to provide NID-related all kind of services. We are astonished to see such kind of activities on social platforms.
How the fraud gang can show such type of audacity, the EC officials questioned.
The services that have been announced in the Facebook groups are- isn’t the card coming out with a slip? lost the slip? no voter found shows? slip has, no date of birth? no registration? duel voter?
Another announcement are- withdraw ID card with form number; set password without scanning face; withdraw ID card with ID number; withdrawal of ID card with birth registration; became a new voter but did not get the card yet? withdraw lost ID card; server copy (with and without signature). When asked about the issue, NID Wing Director General (DG) A K M Humayun Kabir said they have seen the matter that few immoral people advertise on social media about the help of NID-related services. “We have already sent a letter to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) authority to block this facebook pages” he said.
There is no facebook page or group of EC for providing NID-related services mentioned NID Wing DG and said I am requesting the citizens not to go to such type of facebook page or group to get NID related service.
“You can come to the EC’s Upazila / Thana Election Office, District Election Office, Regional Election Office or EC Secretariat for NID-related services. Or you can take NID-related services from this website of nidw.gov.bd of EC”, he added. According to the EC, the number of the total voters is 111,720,669, of which 56,598,005 (50.66%) are males, 55,122,223 females (49.33%) and 441 transgender ones – in the country.
Initially NID cards related services such as lost of NID cards and correction were free. From 1st September 2015, EC started to charge for NID cards related services.
