Digital identification residents being readied

Arjun Raghunath
Express News ServiceFirst Published : 22 May 2010 08:43:53 AM IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As a part of strengthening coastal security, biometric identification marks of around 31 lakh residents of 129 coastal villages across the state will be made a mouse-click away by the end of this month.
Following the Mumabi terror strike, the Central Government had decided to expedite collection of digital data for the National Population Register (NPR) project in nine maritime states, including Kerala, and four Union Territories. A total of 3,331 villages across the nation, including 129 in Kerala, that are vulnerable to coastal security threats have been identified for the purpose.
The Indian Telephone Industries has been entrusted with the task of collecting the data from Kerala as well as Lakshadweep.
Besides personal data and photographs, biometrics of all the 10 fingers of each individual are being collected digitally. Data is being collected from all persons above the age of 15. A digital identification card (smart card) would be issued to each person above 18 years of age by next year.
The data is being collected using laptops and other accessories through house-to-house visits or by organising camps with the support of local bodies. Villages from Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Palakkad and Wayanad districts do not figure among the 129 villages.
"Collection of data from 31 lakh persons in129 villages in Kerala is in the final stages and it would be completed by the end of this month, whereas data collection in Lakshadweep has already been completed. Biometric identification marks of 70,000 persons in Lakhadweep have been collected,’’ highly placed sources told Express.’
Around 120 lakh people across the nine maritime states and four Union Territories are covered in the piloting phase. Following the Mumbai terror strike, the Centre had identified 3,331 coastal villages across the country for piloting the data collection for NPR project.
Besides Kerala, coastal villages of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal come in the initial phase.
Daman and Diu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry are the three Union Territories other than Lakshadweep where the digital identification collection is going on.
NPR is a Rs 3,500-crore project aimed at creating a biometrics-based identity system in the country. It is scheduled to be fully implemented by next year. The project would cover the entire nation in due course.
The data being collected for NPR would also be used for the Unique Identification (UID) project and the unique identification numbers to be allotted by the UID Authority of India to each person would be later incorporated in the NPR data base.
UID project also includes collection of biometrics or iris.