Gujarat’s coastal districts are gearing up to work on a project of providing unique multi-purpose national identity cards to coastal villagers.

On 3rd of June,during one day convention on National Population Registration(NPR), the Central government asked collectors of seven districts in Gujarat to complete the exercise of collecting the database of the coastal villagers in four months starting from October 2009. The seven districts are Bharuch, Surat, Valsad, Navsari, Kutch, Jamnagar and Junagadh. The task has to be completed before 1 February.

The unique identity card is an integral part of the ongoing Multi-Purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) scheme, and will be issued to citizens living in coastal villages of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal by 2010. The Union Territories, which will be covered under the first phase, are Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

The identification number will be provided by National Authority for Unique Identity (NAUID), an entity under Planning Commission. It will work in coordination with the office of the Registrar General of India (RGI), which has been working on the National Population Register. Identity cards proposed to be issued will be micro-processor chip-based cards, which will have information of each individual, his/her finger biometric as well as a photograph.

A unique National Identity Number’ will be assigned to each individual including those below 18 years of age. This number will become a link number’ with any other application of the state government.