Bangladesh
NID Bill placed in JS to take NID from EC under Home Ministry
Dhaka, Sept 5: A bill has been introduced in Parliament to take National Identity (NID) registration from the Election Commission (EC) under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
On Monday, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan presented the bill named 'National Identity Registration Bill, 2023' in Parliament. The National Identity Registration Act of 2010 is repealed and the new Act is being enacted. Citizens will get national identity card from birth through this act.
In the existing system NID is given by Election Commission. The EC will lose that power if the new law comes into effect. It will go under a registrar under the security department of the government's home ministry. However, the bill mentions that the law will come into force by notification in the government gazette. According to the bill, with the repeal of the existing law, all the information related to National Identity Registration and National Identity Card kept by the Election Commission and collected by the Election Commission will be transferred to the Registrar.
Jatiya Party member of parliament Fakhrul Imam opposed it, alleging that if the bill is passed, the independence of the Election Commission will be curtailed and there will be complications in preparing the voter list.
In response, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that the National Identity Card Act will not create any obstacle in the matter of voter list. Election Commission representatives will also be there. We will process accordingly. When the citizen turns 18 years of age, he/she will get the notification that he/she has become a voter. His/her name will be included in the voter list. I have done this by thinking about all this in time and keeping pace with foreign countries. National Identity Card is required everywhere. That's why we're going to do it.
The minister said that all over the world there is a card for personal identification. We want to make that national identity card. Referring to the existing national identity card, he said, "We made a voter list during the polls. We were given a card like national identity card from that voter list. It was effective since 18 years. But here we are in this place where the child born will have an identity card number from the day of birth. His number will expire on the day he dies. That is our purpose."
