Phidim, January 8

The government is all set to distribute national identity cards from Panchthar.

National Identity Card Distribution Management Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs initiated the preparation after reaching district headquarters Phidim today.

A team led by Executive Director of the centre Ram Krishna Subedi held discussion with the chiefs of government offices and local representatives about the importance of national ID card and necessary criteria and process of obtaining it, among others.

These cards will be smart cards with biometric data of the card bearer.

The government had first brought up the idea of national identity cards in fiscal 2008. However, the cabinet had approved the criteria fixed for the cards on December 28 last year.

The officials deployed from the centre will reach all eight local levels to give details to the people about identity card before distributing them, as per Subedi.