Forgers put national ID card future at risk
Monday, 19 November 2007
Shamsul Huq Zahid
FORGERS have been using their ingenuity in the production of educational certificates, passports, visas, fake land records and deeds, counterfeit currencies etc., for a long time. The counterfeiters or forgers do belong to a breed that is very difficult to eliminate and they thrive in a country where enforcement of law is rather lax.
The incidents of forgery have gone up alarmingly in recent years. The technological improvement has made the job of the counterfeiters now easier than before. Computers, scanners and digital colour printers are the widely used equipment by the forgers.
The law enforcers at times raid the dens of the counterfeiters and recover forged passports, stamps, educational certificates and counterfeit currencies. But their network is thought to be widespread and strong. This is evident from the increased availability of counterfeit currency notes of Tk. 500, Tk.100 and Tk.50 denominations in the market. The amount of counterfeit currency notes discovered by the central bank has been on the rise despite the fact the bank has been using some additional security features like electrotype water marks, colour shifting ink, wide holographic security thread, intaglio micro-print etc., in currency notes of higher denominations.
Of late, the forgers, apparently, have gone too far in the use of their ingenuity. The joint forces, according to a media report, have arrested a group of people involved in the production of forged national identity cards, (NIDs) from the New Market area of Rajshahi city. The joint forces during the raid recovered a substantial number of fake NIDs, photo-paper and equipment and chemicals used in the act of forgery.
In course of investigation, the arrested criminals have revealed that a good number of people used to visit their shop to get their NIDs photo-copied or scanned and while doing the work, they picked up the idea of producing fake NIDs. And in doing so, they replaced the pictures, names and signatures on the genuine NIDs that they got saved in their computers. Law enforcers have reported that for a commoner it was very difficult to distinguish between the fake and the genuine versions of an NID.
The news of NID forgery should raise serious concern among the Election Commission and others involved in the production of the same. If the forgery of the NID goes unchecked, the very purpose behind the introduction of the same would be defeated. The NID is an important document now being provided by the state to its citizens. It would be used as proof of citizenship and every citizen will have to produce it while seeking passports, official benefits, land transfer, employment, admission in public universities etc.
The Election Commission while preparing the voters' list is handing over NIDs to the voters. Detailed information about the NID holders is being preserved in a national database. However, the reported forgery is bound to raise a lot of questions about the NID and the authorities concerned have to find answers to those.
For instance, when an NID will be produced by its holder to a government office seeking to get some form of instant service, how would the officials concerned check its genuineness? Will there be any mechanism in all the government offices, airports and other exit and entry points to examine the authenticity of NIDs? That is highly unlikely, for it would involve a lot of investment that the government can hardly afford at the moment.
The move of the present interim administration to provide NIDs through the Election Commission is a step in the right direction. The members of the Bangladesh Army are providing their valuable service in the production of the same. It is expected that NIDs would help reduce much of the hassles that the common people face in securing various official services and land registration.
Besides, the NIDs contain a lot of personal information that many would not like to divulge to others. But the reported act of forgery has even put those at risk. Many more complexities might arise if the government failed to check forgery of NIDs and devise a mechanism to detect their genuineness.
The voters in some parts of the country have already received their NIDs and others would be getting the same in the near future. The government is spending a sizeable amount of taxpayers' money on the NID project. So, it needs to ensure that the money being spent on the production of the NID does not go wasted as it happened in the case of voters' ID card project earlier. The BNP government during its rule between 1991 and 1996 had taken the voters' ID card project at a huge cost and many people were also given the IDs. But because of poor rate of implementation, the project could not be completed during the tenure of the BNP government. The Awami League government that inherited the project decided to scrap it, for reasons best known it. But in the process, a substantial amount of taxpayers' money had gone wasted.
It is expected that the EC would add a few distinctive and special features to the NIDs so that the forgers find it really difficult to produce the counterfeit variety of the same. In that case, the Commission would have to think about the cards that have been already issued to the voters. There are problems, no doubt. But those have to be surmounted at any cost since the questions of national security and people's welfare are linked to the production of NIDs.
FORGERS have been using their ingenuity in the production of educational certificates, passports, visas, fake land records and deeds, counterfeit currencies etc., for a long time. The counterfeiters or forgers do belong to a breed that is very difficult to eliminate and they thrive in a country where enforcement of law is rather lax.
The incidents of forgery have gone up alarmingly in recent years. The technological improvement has made the job of the counterfeiters now easier than before. Computers, scanners and digital colour printers are the widely used equipment by the forgers.
The law enforcers at times raid the dens of the counterfeiters and recover forged passports, stamps, educational certificates and counterfeit currencies. But their network is thought to be widespread and strong. This is evident from the increased availability of counterfeit currency notes of Tk. 500, Tk.100 and Tk.50 denominations in the market. The amount of counterfeit currency notes discovered by the central bank has been on the rise despite the fact the bank has been using some additional security features like electrotype water marks, colour shifting ink, wide holographic security thread, intaglio micro-print etc., in currency notes of higher denominations.
Of late, the forgers, apparently, have gone too far in the use of their ingenuity. The joint forces, according to a media report, have arrested a group of people involved in the production of forged national identity cards, (NIDs) from the New Market area of Rajshahi city. The joint forces during the raid recovered a substantial number of fake NIDs, photo-paper and equipment and chemicals used in the act of forgery.
In course of investigation, the arrested criminals have revealed that a good number of people used to visit their shop to get their NIDs photo-copied or scanned and while doing the work, they picked up the idea of producing fake NIDs. And in doing so, they replaced the pictures, names and signatures on the genuine NIDs that they got saved in their computers. Law enforcers have reported that for a commoner it was very difficult to distinguish between the fake and the genuine versions of an NID.
The news of NID forgery should raise serious concern among the Election Commission and others involved in the production of the same. If the forgery of the NID goes unchecked, the very purpose behind the introduction of the same would be defeated. The NID is an important document now being provided by the state to its citizens. It would be used as proof of citizenship and every citizen will have to produce it while seeking passports, official benefits, land transfer, employment, admission in public universities etc.
The Election Commission while preparing the voters' list is handing over NIDs to the voters. Detailed information about the NID holders is being preserved in a national database. However, the reported forgery is bound to raise a lot of questions about the NID and the authorities concerned have to find answers to those.
For instance, when an NID will be produced by its holder to a government office seeking to get some form of instant service, how would the officials concerned check its genuineness? Will there be any mechanism in all the government offices, airports and other exit and entry points to examine the authenticity of NIDs? That is highly unlikely, for it would involve a lot of investment that the government can hardly afford at the moment.
The move of the present interim administration to provide NIDs through the Election Commission is a step in the right direction. The members of the Bangladesh Army are providing their valuable service in the production of the same. It is expected that NIDs would help reduce much of the hassles that the common people face in securing various official services and land registration.
Besides, the NIDs contain a lot of personal information that many would not like to divulge to others. But the reported act of forgery has even put those at risk. Many more complexities might arise if the government failed to check forgery of NIDs and devise a mechanism to detect their genuineness.
The voters in some parts of the country have already received their NIDs and others would be getting the same in the near future. The government is spending a sizeable amount of taxpayers' money on the NID project. So, it needs to ensure that the money being spent on the production of the NID does not go wasted as it happened in the case of voters' ID card project earlier. The BNP government during its rule between 1991 and 1996 had taken the voters' ID card project at a huge cost and many people were also given the IDs. But because of poor rate of implementation, the project could not be completed during the tenure of the BNP government. The Awami League government that inherited the project decided to scrap it, for reasons best known it. But in the process, a substantial amount of taxpayers' money had gone wasted.
It is expected that the EC would add a few distinctive and special features to the NIDs so that the forgers find it really difficult to produce the counterfeit variety of the same. In that case, the Commission would have to think about the cards that have been already issued to the voters. There are problems, no doubt. But those have to be surmounted at any cost since the questions of national security and people's welfare are linked to the production of NIDs.