SMS service to speed up Watan Card distribution

SMS service will handle recurring complaints about Watan cards distribution and will help reduce crowding at centres.

KARACHI: The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has launched a mobile SMS service in collaboration with the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) so that people can register complaints.

According to a statement issued on Monday by the deputy chairman of NADRA, Tariq Malik, it is a programme to determine whether a person’s name is on the list of beneficiaries for the Watan Card Project so that they can sort out the requests sent by flood-affected people.

The SMS service will not only handle the recurring complaints about Watan Card distribution but it will also help reduce the unruly crowds that throng registration centres across the province. SMSs sent to the centres will help to check the eligibility of the applicant for the Watan Card by simply sending his or her CNIC number to the designated code i.e. 9888. In response, a text message will be sent from NADRA’s central server confirming the CNIC’s existence on the beneficiary list.

“We have people complaining that they live close by or in the neighbourhood but while one of them is declared a beneficiary, the other is deprived of the card,” said Malik. “This service will be able to register a complaint and we can address the issue with local authorities at the backend.”

A text message containing the CNICs of two people of the same area, which includes the CNIC of the person who has received the card and that of the person who has not, will have to be sent on the designated code in order to lodge a complaint.

“The intention is not to point fingers or apportion blame but to help provincial and local governments help the flood victims using technology that can speed up the process,” Malik said.

NADRA has distributed Watan Cards to more than 117,587 families from 25 distribution centres in Sindh and Punjab. In addition to this, NADRA has processed 97,000 fresh and duplicate CNICs for no charge, using its fleet of 220 mobile registration vans, which went around 3,200 flood relief camps countrywide. “This service is for those flood-affected people who have never applied for an ID card or had one but lost it due to the floods,” said the deputy chairman.

200 families head back after getting Watan Cards

Around 200 families from Shikarpur and Jacobabad districts got their Watan Cards after which they headed back to their villages. In Khairpur, several IDPs complained that the administration was not providing them transport and they had no means of returning to their homes.

“We want to go back but the administration is not providing transportation. The DCO House personnel said that since we have our Watan Cards, we should just arrange our own transport,” claimed a flood survivor, Mansab Ali, from Ghouspur at Mumtaz College relief camp.

IDPs in Sukkur also complained that the government would not provide transport due to a lack of funds. “I am desperate to go back now that we have our Watan Cards,” said Hamza Dino of Sultankot, “If we use up our money on arranging transport, what will we have left for our homes?”

‘3,000 Watan Cards issued in five days’

Meanwhile, NADRA has issued Watan Cards to 3,000 out of the 7,000 families affected by the floods in Hyderabad, said Executive District Officer Revenue Barkat Ahmed Rizvi on Monday.

The cards were distributed over a period of five days through multiple centres established at the Niaz Stadium Hyderabad. Rizvi, who is also the focal person for flood survivors in Hyderabad, said that around 0.1 million flood survivors belonging to 7,000 families are currently living in Hyderabad, out of which 3,000 have been registered with NADRA. Efforts are being made to complete the registration process in Hyderabad within the next 10 days so that flood survivors can return home, said Rizvi, who claimed that the government is doing all it can to maintain transparency in the documentation and compensation process. “Not a single flood survivor will be left behind during registration and those who had opted to live with their relatives, friends or in rented houses will also be registered in the second phase.” with additional input from aPP

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2010.