PESHAWAR: The number of applicants for new Computerised National Identity Cards has increased manifold in Khyber Agency owing to announcement about holding of national census in March and general elections in 2018.
Officials at Nadra regional centre in Landi Kotal told Media that they received an average of 90 fresh applications, both from men and women, on daily basis.
They said that Nadra issued around 1,400 new CNICs every month.
They said that little space and meagre facilities were provided to the staff at Landi Kotal Nadra centre. `We have just one room with no separate entry and exit facility and our work flow is badly hampered when we have more than 10 new applicants at a time,` said an official.
He said that the centre should be expanded and more rooms with related facilities should be provided to it for prompt disposal of workload.
He said that the number of appli-cants exceeded 100 on Tuesday.
The staff at the centre has simplified the procedure for new applicants. The applicants are required to attach copies of the parents CNICs, domicile certificate, educational qualification and age certificate with the application form.
`We send documents to local political administration for verfication only when we have suspicion about any applicant,` said a staff member.
He added that influence of political administration and tribal elders was minimised after getting complaints about issuance of cards to Afghan nationals.
The ofñcials said that the existing space and facilities at the centre could not cater to the needs of over 300,000 population of Landi Kotal.
`We have zero rejection rate while new cards are processed and delivered on time as the staff works diligently despite meagre resources in a single room office,` they said.
The officials anticipated that the number of applicants could further swell as the date for census was nearing and adult people too were aspiring to exercise their right to vote in the 2018 generalelections.
They, however, said that attitude of new applicants was rude as majority of them were not fully aware about the procedure of application submission.
