To facilitate the implementation of the Centre’s proposed Multi Purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) project, the task of preparing the National Population Register (NPR) has begun in Orissa’s coastal areas.
The MNIC aims at providing a unique national identity number to each person in the NPR. It also aims at beefing up security in the costal states of the country.The NPR programme was recently launched at Baxipalli, a coastal village in south Orissa’s Ganjam district.“The photographs and the fingerprints of the persons above 15 years of age were taken to prepare the Biometric Smart Card (BSC). The cards would be provided to the persons who are above 18 years”, said Dinabandhu Behera, deputy director of Census.
It has been decided to take the cut off age as 15 years as the person would have attained the age of 18 at the time of issue of the national identity cards.The project is to be implemented in 473 villages of the state’s six coastal districts including Ganjam. The other districts are Puri, Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur. “The exercise is scheduled to be completed before March next year. However, the urban areas of these districts are not taken in the first phase of the exercise”, he added.
As the nation is preparing for the 2011 census, implementation of the NPR will help the census people. The government is also planning to merge the preparation of the electronically guided NPR with the 2011 census, official sources said.