GUWAHATI, April 25 - Thanks to the massive documentation exercise involved with the publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Assam could be the first State to get National Identity Cards for its citizens.
The proposal has already been sent to the Government of India for its consideration by the State Government.
Along with the National Identity Cards, the State could also get in place the first �Digitised Locker� as well, wherein all the relevant documents of the citizens will be stored for future reference.
The Digitised Locker, in case of any eventuality or a natural disaster, would ensure that the precious documents are safe and can be retrieved as and when required.
State Coordinator of NRC Prateek Hajela told this reporter that he had already sent the proposal to the Central Government for its approval and if the plan materialises, the State could be the first one to have such a card.
�Citizens of Assam, from time to time, have been deprived of such cards in one way or the other. This initiative will help get an identity card with national legitimacy,� Hajela said.
�As we are working under the �Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards�, we thought it would not be a bad idea to work on the issue of national identity cards as the NRC update process has already given us a near-ready database,� Hajela said, adding, �The proposals could be seen as the subsidiary or supplementary benefits of the historic NRC update process in the State.
He further informed that the NRC office has received more than 6 crore documents from the applicants, which has led to a massive exercise of verification with the issuing authorities, and once the database is ready, the same can be used to get more benefits for the people in general.
�Through digital database, we can facilitate downloading of documents at a click of the mouse. If put in place, it would help students and job aspirants getting enrolment anywhere in the country without much hassles,� Hajela pointed out, adding that the Union Government is to take the final call in this regard.
Unified household database is another aspect the State Government is working on.
