The Election Commission (EC) is yet to decentralise its services to the district and upazila levels although most of its local server stations are ready, reports UNB.
Many people, especially those who hail from remote areas, now face various hassles in availing EC's services from its head office in the capital.
Now 1,000 to 1,500 people take the EC's National Identity (NID) card and voter migration services every day from the EC's NID card registration cell at the Islamic Foundation Bhaban in the city's Agargaon area.
More than 400 field-level server stations had been prepared nearly six months back, but the network between most of the local server stations and the EC's central server are yet to be connected.
The EC is setting up 464 server stations under the Construction of Server Stations for the Electoral Database (CSSED) project, jointly sponsored by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the government of Bangladesh.
CSSED Project Director Brig Gen KM Salzar Hossain told UNB that they have already completed the construction of 442 server stations. Of them, installation of 400 stations was completed before 2014.
The construction work on the server station started in 2009 involving Tk 36.0 billion. Of the amount, UNDP is providing 40 percent.
According to the project profile, the commission will construct 394 upazila server stations, 10 thana server stations, 51 district server stations and nine larger multi-storey regional server stations.
The construction of the server stations was completed in 393 upazilas, eight in thanas, 36 in districts and five in the regional areas.
More server stations are now under construction in one thana, 15 districts and four regions.
The commission will be able to construct 463 server stations out of 464 within the project period.
Director (operations) of EC's NID card registration cell Md Mohsin Ali, however, said the field-level server stations will be connected with the central server through setting up the network soon.
He told UNB that some 1000-1500 people take services from the cell to correct their NID cards or recollect NID cards in case of losing the first ones or shifting their voting addresses.
