Only 67 per cent of the city residents have had their biometric data recorded so far for getting the national identity cards under the National Population Register programme through the special camps held over the past four-and-a-half months in the city. The exercise, which began on October 15, had been making slow progress. The camps were held at half-a-dozen wards at a time.
The bio metric data were recorded by a private agency with the corporation acting as the facilitator in conducting the camps. The camps, originally scheduled to be held only till January 15, was extended to cover more residents. Of the total targeted above-five population of 7,92, 253, biometric data of 5,32, 552 persons have been recorded so far. Tiruchi Corporation has announced that special camps will be held at its four zonal offices till March 10, in wards where less than 70 per cent of the residents have been covered. The camps would be for residents in wards 1, 3-5, 9 and 12 in Srirangam zone; wards 14, 15, 19, 26, 29 and 33 in Ariyamangalam; wards 38, 42-44, 46 and 47 in Golden Rock; and wards 41, 45 and 49-52 in K.Abishekapuram zone.
The camps would be held at the respective zonal offices and residents are required to appear at the offices before 3 p.m. to get the tokens. A maximum of 500 tokens would be issued at each of these centres every day, Corporation Commissioner V.P.Thandapani has said. Though there were 2.59 lakh persons yet to be covered, officials estimate that nearly 10 to 15 per cent of them would have migrated. A substantial number of people studying or working elsewhere have also not attended the camps so far. Officials said a list of omitted persons would be compiled after the end of the current exercise and all of them would be covered during the second round likely to be held in April/May.
Residents who have misplaced the acknowledgement slips issued to them during the enumeration of the National Population Register (NPR), which they are required to produce at the special camps for recording their biometric data, are also expected to form a significant chunk in the omitted list. However, officials said that even those who have misplaced the slips can attend the camps by giving their family particulars so that the staff at the camps could trace their names in the records. The corporation has been issuing Know Your Residents forms for migrants or those who were not covered under the National Population Register enumeration. About 6,300 families have submitted the forms already. Another 10,000 forms have been distributed and the filled-in forms can be submitted at the special camps till March 10. This will account for nearly a lakh of persons, officials estimate. All these persons will also be covered under the second round of the data recording exercise.
