Yarkhun residents want NADRA team visit their area before census

The decision was taken here on Wednesday after a large number of people could not be entertained by the NADRA officials in Booni even after they spent days in the town along with their family members, mostly children. It may be noted that only those citizens would be counted in the national census who are registered with NADRA. Children less than 18 years of age are though not issued national identity cards, they are allotted CNIC numbers on the basis of which they would be issued the cards when they reach the age of 18. The residents here said those who approached the Booni NADRA office for the registration of their children or renewal of their own computerized national identity cards (CNICs) were kept on waiting for days. As a result, the applicants from far-off areas of village councils Brep, Bang, Meragram No II and Broghil were facing lots of problems and forced to stay in hotels in Booni. Besides, they also have to bear the transportation expenses to Booni and back to their homes. Councillor Taleem Shah here told ChitralToday that for the last more than a year he had been asking the authorities concerned in the district administration to send a NADRA team to the Yarkhun valley to register the people of the area who have not yet get their children registered in the national database. He said a few months back, he had been asked that if there were at least 1,500 applicants a team could be sent to the area. Mr Shah said he and other elected local government members carried out a rough survey in three VCs of Brep, Meragram and Bang and found that there were over 2,700 unregistered people, mostly children. He said for the last over seven years no team from NADRA had visited the Yarkhun valley to register the residents. He said NADRA should send a team to Bang and the local public representatives would call people of all other areas here to facilitate the team, the team would not need going to every village rather can entertain the residents sitting in Bang village. He said the people of Bang would provide all possible facilities, including round-the-clock electricity, to facilitate the NADRA officials. If the government failed to send a NADRA team to the valley, the census exercise would be faulty and thousands of people, including children, would not be added to the national database. He requested Deputy Commissioner Shahab Hamid Yousafzai to order the immediate arrangement of a NADRA team for he far-off Yarkhun valley before the second phase of the ongoing national census started in Chitral on April 25.]]>