The home ministry’s decision to make mandatory submission of copies of national identity cards to buy SIM cards runs counter to the national identity registration act.
A rise in cell phone crimes prompted the ministry on Wednesday to impose a restriction on the sale of SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) or Removable User Identity Module cards to anyone under the age of 18. A person of 18 years of age or above must submit a copy of NID card to get registered as a mobile phone subscriber.
But the national identity registration act does not allow the ministry to make such decision as the task of issuing NID cards to all eligible citizens is yet to be completed.
“No gazette notification will be issued making it mandatory for the citizens to show or submit the cards to get access to any service or facility before completion of issuance of cards to all citizens,” said a provision of the act.
The act also said no citizen can be deprived of any facility for not having NID card.
The parliament on January 21 passed a bill on the national registration act, empowering the Election Commission to prepare and issue NID cards to people eligible to get registered on the voter list.
Officials involved in preparing the voter roll with photographs and issuance of NID cards said they have not yet completed issuing NID cards to all citizens.
They said about 8.10 lakh NID cards have been prepared and dispatched for distribution so far.
About 37 lakh people got registered on the voter roll for the first time while the electoral roll was being updated countrywide since June last year.
The EC on Monday started publishing drafts of the updated voter list for finalisation but is yet to start preparing NID cards for those registered on the list last year.
“We are now busy printing the draft voter list and the final list for Dhaka City Corporation. So, it’s not possible at present to issue NID cards to the new voters,” a senior EC official told The Daily Star yesterday.
According to the national identity registration act, people eligible for being registered as voters have the right to get NID cards.
Various banks and institutions earlier made it mandatory for people to submit or show copies of NID cards to have access to some facilities.
The EC in a press release on January 28 last year asked all institutions not to make mandatory submission of copies of NID cards, citing a clause in the now defunct national identity registration authority ordinance 2008.
The ordinance had a provision that said the use of NID cards cannot be made mandatory until all citizens get the cards.
On expiry of the ordinance in February last year, the government enacted the new law in January
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