The Election Commission has disposed of more than nine lakh applications for corrections to National Identity Cards (NID) in the last six months under a special crash programme.
“Under the crash programme, we have resolved 907,662 NID correction applications in the past six months,” said EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed at a press briefing on Wednesday.
Raising the progress of the crash programme, the EC secretary said now only 76,694 NID correction applications remain to be settled. “Public sufferings related to NID services have declined,” he said.
As of January 1 this year, there were 378,806 pending NID correction applications. Between January and June, another 605,520 new applications were submitted.
Of the total 984,356 applications during this period, 907,662 have been disposed of, leaving 76,694 still pending, he said.
Regarding irregularities at the field level, the secretary said, "Before talking about the suffering at the field level, I would like to say. Many people are sending me information from the field level. Information about harassment is coming to us. If the incident is true, we will give exemplary punishment to those concerned."
When asked how many politicians have their NIDs locked? Akhtar Ahmed said, "The answer to this question is not ready. I didn't expect this question to be asked. NIDs can be locked. I heard that mine is also locked, it is for various reasons."
What is the reason? Don't let it be misused or abused. I heard this, I don't know if it's true or false. I didn't go to verify it. It wasn't even necessary. It's better not to take information about anyone's personal affairs. He also said, "I heard I'm not confirmed. I have nothing to confirm. If it's locked, it's good! Data won't be abused."
As the number of pending applications goes down, so does the intensity of complaints of harassment and sufferings, the EC Secretary added.
Since 2020, the EC has received a total of 5,476,011 correction applications, out of which 5,399,420 have been resolved.
