KATHMANDU, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Nepali government started printing the smart national identity cards for the first time for its citizens on Thursday, authorities said.
Nepal's Home Secretary Prem Rai officially launched the printing of national identity cards at the National Identity Card Processing Center under the Ministry of Home Affairs at Singhadurbar, the central administrative secretariat.
This is the first time the government has printed the machine-readable biometric smart national identity cards for its citizens, according to Mukesh Regmi, senior computer engineer at National Identity Management Center.
On Thursday, the government printed the national identity cards of 384 government employees based on their citizenship certificates.
Meanwhile, the government is planning to distribute the national identity cards to people by the end of November.
The National Identity Management Center will issue digital identity cards to general public based on their citizenship certificates, biometric data and individual information, according to Regmi.
The machine-readable biometric smart national identity card incorporates the name of the person, address, birth date, the name of parents and grandfather, religion, caste, occupation, among others. The individual's photograph, fingerprint and signature will also be included in the national identity cards, according to authorities.
