Pressure for issuance of ID Cards due to Aasandha

The announcement by the government of the commencement of the new health insurance program Aasandha next month, under which every Maldivian citizen gets free health insurance, has increased the workload of the Government’s Section responsible for issuing of National Identity Cards.

Sun’s journalists who visited the Department of National Registration this morning observed that the office was heavily congested.

Director of the Department of National Registration Fareeda Yoosuf said that the overload this year is due to the Aasandha health insurance program’s requirement that every applicant should hold a valid Identity Card.

250 queue numbers are being issued daily, and people are queuing up as early as 7am. An individual who joined the queue at 7.30am this morning complained to Sun’s reporters that queue numbers were issued to a group of people who arrived later than him, while he is still waiting in the queue.

Fareeda said that 250 numbers are being issued daily as per normal. She noted that today, the numbers had run out by 8.30am. She also said that even though the number of people who provide the service cannot be increased, the problems arising in the queue system will be solved.