NID authority can’t be taken away by sending a letter: CEC

The government will have to sit for discussion with Election Commission (EC) to settle the National Identity (NID) card related authority, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda has said.

“The authority of NID cannot be taken away from the Election Commission by sending a letter. The government should sit with us to resolve the issue,” the CEC told reporters in the city on Wednesday.

“We will present our stance over the NID issue when the government will sit with us,” he told reporters after inaugurating a medical centre for the staff and officials of the EC.

The election commission conducts all elections based on the NID card related server and a crisis will be created if the authority is taken away, he said.

Meanwhile, while addressing a programme in Dhaka, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal rejected the CEC’s confusion saying that the authority of the NID card has come to an appropriate place.

There will be no crisis if the Security Services Division takes charge of NID-related services, he said.

The EC has been providing the NID card related services to the citizens since 2008.

But, following a scam in issuing the NID cards among Rohingya people, the Prime Minister’s Office has recently instructed the Cabinet Division to take necessary steps to shift NID-related services to the Security Services Division.