Pakistani News

National Database & Registration Authority (Nadra) launched a mobile SMS service in collaboration with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority in order to devise a mechanism to lodge complaints and determine a person’s existence in beneficiary list for Watan Card project to facilitate the flood affectees in sorting out their requests.
In a statement issued on Monday, Deputy Chairman, Nadra, Tariq Malik said that SMS service would not only handle the recurring complaints pertaining to Watan Card issuance but also enable the local authorities to curtail down the rush at the centres by checking the eligibility of the applicant for Watan Card by simply sending his CNIC number to the designated short code i.e. 9888. In response, a text message will be sent from the Nadra central server confirming CNIC existence in the beneficiary list.
While for Complaints Redressal, a text message containing two CNIC pertaining to the same area i.e. CNIC of a beneficiary and of the complainant, will have to be sent on the designated short code in order to launch a complaint. “We have people complaining that they live close by or in neighbourhood area, and one of them is declared as beneficiary but other is deprived by provincial governments. This service will be able to register a complaint and we can address the issue with local authorities at the backend, and try to resolve it”, Malik said.
Malik hoped that this will help the local authorities to minimise the rush at these centres ensuring that the deserving beneficiaries do not have to suffer and get the relief in time. “The intent is not to point fingers or apportion blame but to help provincial and local governments to help the flood victims by using technology,” said Tariq Malik.
He said Nadra had distributed Watan Cards to more than 117,587 families from 25 distribution centres setup by Nadra in Sindh and Punjab. In addition to this, Nadra has processed 97,000 fresh and duplicate CNICs free of cost using its fleet of 220 mobile registration vans moving around 3,200 flood relief camps established countrywide in flood-hit areas. This service is for the flood-affected people who have never applied for ID cards or had one and lost in floods. <<via>>