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Commissioner prepared to admit horoscopes for NICs
People lacking formal birthdate documentation may bring along a horoscope if they need a National Identity Card, with the authorities determined to issue NICs to everyone needing them within six months.
The Commissioner-General of the Registration of Persons, Sarath Kumara, said the NIC drive followed a request from the Elections Commissioner that cards be issued to enable people to vote, but he pointed out that the cards serve multiple needs.
Priority is being given to Badulla, Matara and the north and north-east, including residents of Trincomalee and Batticaloa, where the Department of Registration of Persons has found a high level of people facing problems due to lack of identity cards.
Mobile NIC-issuing services are in progress in Batticaloa and Trincomalee, Mr. Kumara said.
“We also want to help persons who do not have documents to obtain a relevant document and obtain an identity card,” the Commissioner-General said.
“Birth certificate details are required to obtain an NIC. If a birth certificate is not there we could use the marriage certificate, or necessary details would be taken from a childbirth certificate,” he said.
People not legally married and lacking both birth and marriage certificates would be given a chance to use a document such as a probable age certificate, school registration certificate or school-leaving certificate.
Such people could even bring their horoscope if the date of birth could not be found, Mr. Kumara said.
Officials this week worked on locating people lacking identity cards in the Badulla district. “If the people do not have any documents about themselves their identity will be based on data provided by estate superintendents,” Mr. Kumara said.
Officials collected 4,200 applications for identity cards in Badulla during the week. The programme moved on to Pitabeddra, Matara, at the weekend.
Mr Kumara said that based on initial applications for NICs the number of people requiring identity cards would not top 400,000.
The department’s NIC drive is being carried out with the help of District Secretaries, Divisional Secretaries and school principals and election-monitoring personnel.
Resources for the mobile service at Badulla and the north are being supplied by the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) organisation. They include free stamps and photographs and help with birth certificates.
CaFFE Executive Director Ranjith Keerthi Tennakoon said his organisation had helped with preparing resources needed for 15,000 new NICs for the Trincomalee district.
The effort was being aided by 900 other small associations besides CaFFE, he said.
Mr. Kumara said some people did not know that not having an NIC was an offence that could attract a fine and a three-month to two-year jail sentence.
Everyone over the age of 16 years should have an identity card.
Mr. Kumara warned that people with forged documents or illegally adopted children would face punitive action.
He said only voters with NICs would be able to vote in an election next year.