<p>Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday formally handed over the first set of smart identity-checking scanners to the Navy and Coast Guard to check identity cards of the residents of coastal areas.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Singh gave away the Resident Identity Card (RIC) readers to Navy Chief Admiral R K Dhowan and Coast Guard Director-General Vice-Admiral A G Thapliyal at a function here. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was also present.<br /><br />The office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner is implementing the scheme of preparing RICs for residents of coastal areas. It is aimed to strengthen coastal security measures in nine states and 4 Union territories with a 7516.60 km long coastline.<br /><br />One of the measures to strengthen coastal security was the creation of National Population Registrar (NPR) in 3,331 coastal villages. A Home Ministry official said around 65 lakh people living in coastal areas have been issued such cards as of now.<br /><br />The smart card readers are capable of demographic and biometric authentication on an offline mode and are manufactured indigenously by ITI Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL).<br />DH News Service</p>
<p>Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday formally handed over the first set of smart identity-checking scanners to the Navy and Coast Guard to check identity cards of the residents of coastal areas.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Singh gave away the Resident Identity Card (RIC) readers to Navy Chief Admiral R K Dhowan and Coast Guard Director-General Vice-Admiral A G Thapliyal at a function here. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was also present.<br /><br />The office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner is implementing the scheme of preparing RICs for residents of coastal areas. It is aimed to strengthen coastal security measures in nine states and 4 Union territories with a 7516.60 km long coastline.<br /><br />One of the measures to strengthen coastal security was the creation of National Population Registrar (NPR) in 3,331 coastal villages. A Home Ministry official said around 65 lakh people living in coastal areas have been issued such cards as of now.<br /><br />The smart card readers are capable of demographic and biometric authentication on an offline mode and are manufactured indigenously by ITI Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL).<br />DH News Service</p>