'Census for unique ID will be complete next year'

NEW DELHI, INDIA:  The government will complete the census survey across the country by next year for issuing the unique multi-purpose national identity cards for all citizens, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said here Friday.

"We had launched the unique ID project last year on a pilot basis. This year we will cover about 3,331 coastal villages for the census of biometric cards," Chidambaram said in his inaugural address at the TiEcon Delhi conference on entrepreneurship.

"The entire country will be covered by next year."

The government has set up an agency, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), under Nandan Nilekani, to implement the ambitious project.

The main purpose of this project would be to avert the need for multiple proofs of identity for citizens while availing any government service, or for private needs like opening bank accounts or seeking telephone connections.

On the crime and criminal tracking system of the central government, Chidambaram said a web-based criminal record database was being prepared.

About 16,000 police stations will be linked to a common platform where they can share criminal information. "All states will sign MoUs (memorandums of understanding) with the Centre" to implement the crime and criminal tracking network project successfully, the Home Minister said.

"It will cost us Rs.2,000 crore over a period of two years."

©IANS