Cabinet clears draft of NID Registration Act

The Cabinet today gave final approval to the draft of the “National Identity Card Registration Act, 2023”.

Under the act, responsibility for NID registration will be transferred to the Security Services Division under the Home Affairs Ministry. But, the Election Commission will have the responsibility to prepare list of voters comprising the citizens aged 18 or above.

The approval came from the Cabinet meeting held with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at her office.

Later, Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain briefed about the decisions of the meeting in a press conference at the Secretariat here.

On October 10 in 2022, the cabinet approved in principle the draft to bring the national identity registration operation under the Security Services Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, from the Election Commission.

Mahbub Hossain said there will be a registrar office under the Security Services Division to operate the national identity registration services and the office will be headed by registrar.

He said with the enactment of the new law, newborns will receive a unique identity number shortly after birth and it will later be the individual’s NID card number.

Replying to a query, the cabinet secretary said NID registration related data will be shifted to new registrar office from the Election Commission.

Noting that existing NIDs will remain effective, he said currently citizens aged 18 or above can register for NID but as per the new law, citizens of any age can register for NID.

Mahbub Hossain said the initiative has been taken to lessen people’s sufferings and the government’s target is to keep all information of an individual under a unique identity number.

He said Shariatpur and Thakurgaon districts are going to get public universities as drafts of two acts have also been approved in the meeting.

The name of Shariatpur’s university will be ‘Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agriculture University, Shariatpur’ while the other one will be Thakurgaon University.
The proposed name for Shariatpur’s university was Sheikh Hasina Agriculture University but the cabinet decided to change the name to ‘Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agriculture University’.

The cabinet also approved another draft law to build ‘Sylhet Unnayan Kartripakkha’.

Besides, drafts of Bangladesh Institute of Management Act, Bangladesh Economic Zone (second amendment) Act and National Disabled Development Foundation Act were also approved in the meeting.