Noman Mosharef :
The project for providing National Identity Card (NID) to expatriates hits a snag despite Tk 100 crore budgetary allocation for the scheme.
The three government ministries– the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment (MEWOE) and the Election Commission (EC) are blaming each other for the failure of the project.
NID Wing officials claimed that they have wanted to provide NID to expatriates in those countries where they are staying considering the remittance warriors’ sufferings. But it could not possible, as they did not get the MOFA’s nod.
Denying the EC’s claim, the MOFA is blaming the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been swept all over the world since November 2019.
In 2017 Deputy Commissioner (DC) conference, the government had decided to provide the NID cards to the expatriates and at the end of the same year the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment had sent a letter to the EC asking to take required initiatives for giving NID to expatriates.
In 2019, Minister for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Imran Ahmed had inaugurated ‘services.nidw.gov.bd’ in Malaysia for giving NID to migrants who are staying in this country. The same website was also inaugurated in United Arab Emirate (UAE).
The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), KM Nurul Huda, had inaugurated the same website in the United Kingdom (UK) as a third country.
The EC had taken a project titled ‘Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services-2 (IDEA-2) for 2020-2025, where the programme for giving NID to expatriates included and Tk 100 crore allocated in this purpose. But they could not able to use the budget without getting the MOFA’a permission.
When asked why the project did not get pace, the minister for the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Imran Ahmed refused to make any comment. However, his APS Md Rasheduzzaman said this is the job of the EC; they should have supervised it. We have done our part.
Over the issue CEC KM Nurul Huda said ‘I took the initiative to start the work of NID registration of expatriates. The idea was to do it digitally. I went too far, but I couldn’t because of Corona. We started in London, Singapore, Malaysia, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. But in the end I could not. It is a complex task, but possible.
Foreign Minister Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen, in response to a complaint, said that a letter had been sent to the Foreign Ministry seeking permission from the EC but the permission was not forthcoming. They could not go anywhere else; the programme fell on deaf ears. They (EC) did not give us any letter. What did they give? I don’t know who sent the letter; I didn’t see it. ‘
