Home Minister Launches Resident Identity (Smart) Cards for People of A&N Islands

The Union Home Minister Shri P. Chidambaram, launched the first batch of Resident Identity Cards under the coastal National Population Register (NPR) project at Porthrapur village in South Andaman district of Andaman & Nicobar Islands today in the presence of Lt. Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lt. General Bhupender Singh. Smt. Bhulaxmi, a resident of Porthrapur, was the first recipient of the Resident Identity Card. The RIC, is a smart card having 64 KB micro processor chip. The National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, has finalized the visual layout of the card. It incorporates several physical security features like Guilloché patterns, hot stamped hologram and micro text etc.

Chief Secretary of Andaman & Nicobar Islands Shri Shakti Sinha, Registrar General & Census Commissioner India, Dr. C. Chandramouli, Deputy Director General (NPR), Shri S.K.Chakarabarti, Director of Census Operations ,Shri V. Abraham, Chairman & Managing Director of ECIL, Shri Y.S.Mayya and a host of other dignitaries from the Central Government and UT Administration were present on the occasion.

In Andaman & Nicobar Islands, 365 villages and the town of Port Blair have been covered under the coastal NPR project. A total of 3,88,398 persons have been covered. Of this, 2,82,885 persons above the age of 18 years would be issued identity cards.

The Government of India had decided to create a National Population Register (NPR) in the country. As a first step, the coastal NPR project was taken up in coastal areas of 9 maritime states (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal) and 4 UTs (Andaman & Nicobar, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Daman & Diu) as one of the measures for strengthening the security of the coastline of the country. The demographic data collection of 1.2 crore persons and the biometrics of 75 lakh persons in the 3331 coastal villages under the coastal NPR project have been completed. At present, production of identity (smart) cards is underway. Till date, 5 lakh cards have already been produced.

The scheme envisages collection of specific items of information of each individual in the coastal areas and issue of Resident Identity (smart) cards (RIC) to all usual residents, who are of age 18 years and above. In all, 3331 coastal villages have been covered in the first phase of the project in these States/UTs. In Andaman & Nicobar Islands, besides villages, the town of Port Blair has also been covered. The approved cost of the scheme is Rs. 216.31 crore. The data collection for the project was done by house to house enumeration by Government officials who were assisted by data entry operators. The collected data was verified by the Government officials after publishing in the local areas and inviting claims and objections. The data was also subjected to biometric de-duplication.

The production and personalization of the RIC cards have been undertaken through the CPSUs. They have setup state-of-the-art production and personalization facilities at secure premises for the coastal NPR project. The delivery of the RICs would be undertaken by India Post for secure delivery to the usual residents.