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National identity card scheme to be launched today

Special Correspondent

Plan to disburse two million cards to those above 18 years

NEW DELHI: The ambitious Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC) scheme will become operational on Saturday with the Government scheduled to release the first set prepared under the pilot project initiated four years ago.

The MNIC boasts of being a tamper-proof plastic card with data in visible zone and details in a microprocessor chip that requires a reader to peruse the data it contains.

The card would give the citizen a 16-digit ID number and would be delivered by India Post in a tamper-proof customised cover that is both waterproof and able to sustain extreme temperatures.

Rs. 45-crore project

Registrar General of India Devender Kumar Sikri told The Hindu that the Rs. 45-crore project planned to provide two million cards to people above 18 years in 13 districts across 12 States and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

After the official launch on Saturday, the MNIC centre hopes to despatch cards to two of the three million people in these districts over the next three months. A consortium of public sector companies viz. Bharat Electronics Limited at Delhi and Mumbai, Electronics Corporation of India Limited at Kolkata and Indian Telephone Industries, Chennai, have coordinated with the MNIC.

The microprocessor chip, provided by Philips, would work on system developed by the National Informatics Centre and is embedded in the plastic card designed by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. It can be read offline and at present it will be available at police stations. Individuals too can purchase the reader.

Explaining the features of the16 kB chip, M. Loganathan of BEL and J. Sundara Rao of ECIL, said it had three specific usages, validation, updating and additional applications, for which some 6 KB to 8 KB space would be available. It would contain biometric data of the cardholder.

S.K. Chakrabarti, Deputy Director General of MNIC, at the Registrar General of India, has been coordinating at the Government end.

The card itself would carry digital signatures of two officials. Mr. Sikri said at present the Government was paying Rs. 60 a card, but with volumes the price could come down.

While the pilot project was launched in November 2003, The Citizenship Act, 1955, was amended in December 2003, to provide for compulsory registration of all citizens and issue of a national identity card.

The pilot project was launched in Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tripura, Goa, Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

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