90,000 widows get Watan Cards
ISHFAQULLAH SHAWL
ISLAMABAD: National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has started the process of providing Watan Cards to widows flood-ravaged areas and so far 90,000 widows were given Watan Cards, said Tariq Malik, Deputy Chairman, Nadra here on Tuesday, while talking to Business Recorder.
There are about 102,000 widows among flood affectees who will be provided Watan Cards as head of the family and if there are such female affectees whose husbands are out of country should approach DCO for registration, Tariq Malik said. A procedure will be devised under which DCOs of the affected district starts processing the data of the females either widows or whose husbands are out of country and after receiving final data Nadra would issue cards to them, Malik said.
Responding to a question regarding the delay in Watan Cards in Balochistan, he said that the distribution process of Watan Cards in Balochistan Province was kicked off from Jafferabad district where about 89,070 cards would be given to beneficiaries hailing from the district, “Provincial Government has provided the list of the beneficiaries of Jafferabad district on November 3 and distribution of card started from November 8,” he added.
“We talked to the relevant authorities to invite Nadra in Council of Common Interest (CCI) meeting to present the real picture before the CCI participants,” Malik said, adding that Nadra was not invited that was the reason the issues raised in the CCI were not answered properly.
Malik dispelled the impression of any delay on the part of Nadra, saying that the delay in issuance of Watan Cards in Balochistan was due to non-availability of the final lists by provincial authorities. He said that the Nadra had played its role and created a system under which funds can be distributed in a transparent way. “Its enforcement is responsibility of the provincial governments and they have to play their role”, he added.
It is unprecedented that in a very short span of time Nadra has processed cards for 1.36 million flood affectees and so far 1.15 million cards were distributed among flood affectees, he said, adding that the credit goes to dedicated Nadra workers and to people who have created this world’s biggest bio-metric database.
Besides, notifying the calamity-hit areas under Calamity Act, provinces had to select partner banks and give approval to the business rules for distribution of Watan Cards, he said. He said that Balochistan government had reservation regarding the Sindhi people who migrated to Balochistan, which also caused delay in processing Watan Card. “We told them that if there cards were processed in Balochistan even then they get money from Sindh quota, then they started process”, he added. Provision of space for processing and distribution center is the responsibility of provincial government and Nadra is provided space for one center in Jafferabad, which is not enough, he said, adding that Nadra was fully prepared to uplink 15 centres at one time, but province is not ready.
Besides, Jafferabad, Balochistan Government had provided data of Nasirabad, Jhal Magsi, Qila Saifullah and Loralai districts, but after preparing lists no final approval was received so far, he said.
Responding to a question regarding delay in issuing computerised national identity cards and other documents to people, Malik said that it was due to lack of capacity. “We had a capacity of processing 35,000 cards in a day and the work load of Watan Card has caused delay in Nadra routine work. Now we have enhanced the system, which boosted our capacity to 55,000 cards a day”, Nadra deputy Chief added.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:11/10/2010
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