Fake national ID cards
WE are flabbergasted, outraged and concerned over the seizure of 53,100 forged national ID cards. Even this may be just a tip of the iceberg. It raises a chilling prospect that many more like these may have been already manufactured, retailed and in circulation!
The ease with which the national ID cards can be forged with any 'basic office equipment', as admitted by Director of Operations of the National Identification Card Project is a jolting eye-opener. This is indicative of a complete lack of security marker such high-valued document was supposed to have had as an essential feature. Now it is said that the antidote to such forgery would be ensured with the introduction of smart cards. When that will be is the question.
The fraudulent practice clearly poses a threat to financial institutions as they have no way of verifying whether a client has submitted the photocopy of a real NID card or not. Importantly, the card is a document for identifying voters at polling booths besides its other uses for gaining access to services and facilities.
One would have thought that a central data base has been maintained and any institution can access it to verify whether a card is genuine or fake. But as a senior banker pointed out, 'we don't have a data base of citizens' for examining the genuineness of NID card. Clearly, there are huge gaps to fill in the national identification system for citizens.
Comments