Pursuing old policies
Photo: Quddus Alam / driknews
It is very unfortunate that the Chief Election Commissioner has discouraged the use of national ID card on the plea that it is not hundred percent complete. Maintenance of national ID for over 70 million people is undoubtedly a continuous process and it will never be hundred percent complete and error free. In Bangladesh, the past regime's good initiatives are indiscriminately shelved by the next regime. After the liberation of Bangladesh, cricket was discouraged on the plea that it was a Pakistani game. That's why Bangladesh cricket had been in a long pause. However, Bangladesh managed to become a Test playing country in 2000. The health policy and the ICT initiatives of the Ershad regime were not followed up by the next governments. So, the “Health for All” by the year 2000 slogan went in vain. In the early 90s, the Chief Election Commissioner Justice Abdur Rouf initiated a pilot database voter list project in Dapunia union in Mymensingh. But it also met the same fate, because the next government did not continue the project and it took over one and a half decades to get an electronic voter list and national database. As a citizen of the country, I urge the government to maintain and improve the National ID cards. The present govt. should continue the good projects of the previous govt. to move ahead for good governance and join the digital information era. We must use national ID cards in every possible area.
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