Home ministry to distribute chip-based ID cards in coastal areas

Union home minister P Chidambaram will distribute the first tranche of Resident Identity Cards (RIC) smart cards at a function in Porthrapur village, Port Blair, in the union territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands tomorrow, the home ministry announced today.

The RIC is a smart card with 64 KB microprocessor chip.

The home ministry plans to distribute about 25.6 million smart cards, covering all persons who have completed 18 years of age, in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

The home ministry also plans to create a National Population Register (NPR) in the coastal areas of 9 maritime states (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal) and four union territories (Andaman & Nicobar, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Daman & Diu) as one of the measures for strengthening the security of the coastline of the country.

The scheme envisages collection of specific items of information of each individual in the coastal areas and issue of Resident Identity Cards (RIC) to all usual residents, who are of age 18 years and above.

All the selected 3,331 coastal villages have been covered in the first phase of the project of these States/UTs. In Andaman & Nicobar Islands, besides the villages, all the towns will also be covered in the first phase itself. The approved cost of the scheme is Rs216.31 crore.