The government has moved to form a national registration authority for birth and voter registration and national identity cards (ID) preparation, a top government official said Tuesday.
"The process to form the national registration authority is at its initial stage. A final decision will be made taking everything into account," home secretary Abdul Karim told bdnews24.com over telephone.
The Chief Adviser's Office is monitoring the progress of a cell tasked to form the authority and the home secretary is one of the members of the cell.
Several inter-ministerial meetings have been held with suggestions that the national registration authority work under the home ministry.
Home ministry sources said the government would form the authority through an ordinance and a draft ordinance has been prepared.
A nine-member committee headed by the additional home secretary has also been formed to examine the draft ordinance. The government will take its next move on the report.
Birth registration proved the main obstacle to previous government attempts to make national and voter ID cards.
The local government ministry is running a project on birth registration and the Election Commission is preparing voter lists with the help of the army. National ID cards are also being distrib uted with voter ID cards.
The latest government initiative aims to bring all the things under one authority.
Most people do not have birth certificate since registering child birth is not mandatory. If necessary, anyone can collect the certificate from the city corporation, municipality and Union Parishad.
It leaves scope for people who are not Bangladeshi citizens to collect these certificates. The government is thinking to impose restrictions on birth registration.
Govt to form authority for birth, voter registration
FE Team | Published: September 05, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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