Reported by: Syed Ripon
Written by: Eshan Maitra
Smart Card distribution posing to be an immense task to be finished by its due time. Election Commission has to deliver to 8.73 crores voters in next 5.5 months, by 31 December. EC is afraid, that is impossible.
EC took upon a great task of replacing average plastic laminated National
Identification cards with more useful & modern Smart Cards. EC took upon the project in January 2015. PM inaugurated the first distribution in Dhaka City on 3 October 2016. So far, only 21.87 lacs citizens have received Smart Card in Dhaka City. Similarly, the distribution campaign started very late in other cities as well. It was far late than expect and taking very long at the fields as well. EC also is in a sticky situation. Since, by their order to a French company. 9 crores blank-cards should have arrived by June of last year. Though, they have only received 6 crores so far. On other hand, for the shortage of iris & 10-finger-print scanner. It is posing to be difficult to the distribute cards any faster.