The Hindu Business Line : National ID cards may be issued by Dec-end

THE Government plans to issue the first set of cards under the Multipurpose National Identity Card by December-end. Besides establishing the identity of the card-holder, it would also enable the person to avail themselves of civic services.

"The Government has decided to initiate a pilot project for multipurpose national identity card across 13 States to cover a population of three million. The fieldwork for the pilot project started in November 2003 and the Government plans to start issuing the cards by end of December," Mr Jayant Kumar Banthia, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, told Business Line, on sidelines of 4th Smart Card Tech India 2004 conference.

Among the States that would be covered in the pilot phase are Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, and Pondicherry.

Explaining the concept of the multipurpose national identity card, Mr Banthia said, "The card will facilitate interaction with Government services. It can support a variety of applications such as immunisation, land property records and public distribution system and can also be used as education record."

"Of the three million target population, about two million are over 15 years of age and they have to be photographed and finger biometrics has to be done. The work is currently going on," he said, adding that about Rs 19 crore had been earmarked for the pilot project.

Earlier while inaugurating the day-long conference, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr S. Regupathy, stressed on the importance of issuing identity cards in the backdrop of terrorism and infiltration.

"The larger question remains how to identify the infiltrators and how to get them to admit to infiltration. We must issue cards to Indian citizens so that in future those staying illegally in the country could be identified," Mr Regupathy said. The card could also double up as health cards, credit cards or debit cards and driving licences, he said. "The citizens would also find it easier to get ration or obtain different civic services using this card for entry," he added.

Highlighting the issues that were likely to crop up while taking the project national at a later stage, Mr Regupathy said, "First we have to get the data, check the data and create a national database. The cards issued should be related to this database. It would also mean that there has to be machines for reading these cards and checking them with national database, available in several places."