Kathmandu – The government has made the national identity card mandatory to receive the social security allowance starting in January.

According to the National Identity Card and Registration Department, the National Identity Card and Registration Department have revised the decision to require an identity card from July to receive social security allowance and increase it to be implemented from January .

To implement the decision, the department has sent correspondence to the respective local levels of 66 districts to renew the social security card by January and the biometric of the identity card should be submitted.

Those who have already received an identity card or its number will have to compulsorily apply biometrics while renewing their Social Security Allowance card.

If there is no identity card or its number, the concerned person should self-declare that he did not take a photo and give biometrics for the identity card or that the number is lost. According to the department, self-declaration has been made mandatory because there is a possibility that they can get double benefits by deceiving the local authorities even if they do not have an identity card number.

According to the department, identity card details of 1 crore 51 lakh 79 thousand 515 people have been collected. Regular information is being collected from the district administration office, area administration office and some local levels of 77 districts. More than 47 lakh identity cards have been distributed.

More than five billion has already been spent on the purchase of ID card software, ID card printing, staff mobilization, and machine purchase. The Department said that despite spending a huge amount of money every year in the name of identity card, it is not being implemented, but now they are trying to make it mandatory by publishing a notice in the gazette.