Dhaka: Government officials are crowding around the National Identity Card section of Election Commission in Dhaka, but badly suffer as the section is still providing poor services despite introducing new fees with promise of better services.

Officials are rushing to the EC office to get their NIDs corrected following the implementation of new pay scale under which officials need to submit their flawless NIDs to receive payments.

Earlier EC’s NID card section was the single office to get the cards corrected or changed. Now anyone can apply for changes into their cards from upazila offices.

Government servants complained about poor service and ineptness. The EC officials, however, brushed aside the complaints and said they were ensuring services despite hindrances.  

A government servant, preferring to be named, said, ‘I submitted the Xeroxed copy of my service book with the complaints. The copy bears my birth date and age. The copy is also attested. But after three long months they [EC officials] are now asking for another copy of the service book attached by a magistrate to verify my information.’

EC NID card section Director General Brigadier General Sultanuzzaman Md Saleh Uddin said, ‘We’re facing huge crowd. Comparatively, cards belong to the Class III and Class IV workers have more glitches. Everyday we’re working up to 8:00pm, 9:00pm and sometimes it becomes 10:00pm. We’re also working in holidays.’ Government officials in Bangladesh usually work from 9:00am to 5:0pm.

The EC section has served at least 2.5 lakh government servants in last two months, Sultanuzzaman said.

About the newly introduced fee, he said, ‘Money will not guarantee getter service. EC is not taking the fee. This money is sent to the government.’

He, however, thinks the smart ID cards will bring a solution.