Ismail (standing, right) monitoring the registration process at SK Karamunting hall yesterday.
SANDAKAN: The National Registration Department (NRD) has successfully registered some 70,000 cases for late registration of births and identification cards through its Special Mobile Unit (SMU) throughout the state since 2000.
State NRD director, Ismail Ahmad said the late registration involved local people in the remote rural areas and those people with special needs, elderly and orphans.
“SMU is one of the initiatives mooted by NRD since 2000 to help locals with late registration for birth certificates and identity cards. The target also includes special cases such as victims of fire and other disasters.
“With this facility, the registration process becomes easier and faster due to the availability of Internet access which allows details of applicants to be sent directly to the headquarters. Previously, the information collected would be brought to the office for follow-up,” he said to reporters during the registration for replacement of documents for fire victims of Kampung Cenderamata, Batu Sapi at the school hall of SK Karamunting, yesterday.
A total 509 residents were registered, he added.
Ismail said the SMU was now equipped with Internet access via its satellite dish since last month and enables the registration of documents to be completed immediately.
The unit is to focus on the late registration documents for the locals living in the rural areas or remote areas in the the state that mostly faced logistic problems.
In another development, he said four NRD Offices, namely Keningau, Sandakan, Tawau and Lahad Datu were expected to receive printing machine in January 2014 to allow processing of identification cards in a day.
For the record, only the NRD Office in Kota Kinabalu has the printing machine.