Smart NID cards distribution starts

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday inaugurated the distribution of machine-readable smart national identity (NID) cards among 100 million citizens, replacing their existing laminated ones across the country.

She opened the process through giving biometric details, impression of 10 fingers and picture of her iris at a programme held at Osmani Memorial Auditorium Dhaka city.

The Prime Minister first provided President Abdul Hamid with the smart NID.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad received it on behalf of the President from the Prime Minister. After the programme, he will hand over it to the President at Bangabhaban.

The CEC also handed over the smart NID to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The Prime Minister then handed over the smart NID cards to all the cricketers of Bangladesh ODI cricket team.

The distribution of NID cards will begin in two city corporations in Dhaka and in a remote area in Kurigram the following day.

 Then smart cards will be distributed at upazila, municipality, union and ward levels in phases over the next 13 months.

According to the Election Commission, the number of voters in the country is now about 10 million. A total of 8,10,58,698 citizens got laminated NID cards eight years ago for the first time.

The machine-readable smart card will prevent its forgery. For being machine readable, the smart cards have additional safety measures against forgery.

To maintain security of the smart cards, 25 international certifications and standards have been ensured.

The microchips in smart cards will contain all the information of a citizen. Encrypted data would be stored inside a chip in the cards.

The cardholders will get 22 types of services, including banking, TIN, driving license and passport.

Though the smart NID cards will be given free of cost, the cardholder will have to pay a fixed amount of money if he or she goes to collect a new one after losing it twice.

The distribution of the cards will start in the two city corporation areas of the capital on Monday.

The first smart NID cards people will get in exchange for their old cards will be free. People will have to go to smart card distribution centres with their old cards.

The EC officials then will collect biometric details, impression of 10 fingers and picture of their iris before giving them their smart new cards.

The EC has already published advertisements in newspapers mentioning the names of smart card distribution centres in the capital.

People can get information about smart NID card distribution visiting http://www.nidw.gov.bd/ or contacting EC call centre dialing 105 with their mobile phones, according to a news agency.