250,000 duplicate ID cards circulating in Jakarta

The Jakarta Civil Registration Agency estimates that there are at least 250,000 duplicate identity cards circulating around the capital city, which has some 7.49 million residents.

Agency chief Purba Hutapea said the duplicate ID cards belong to people who already moved from Jakarta to other areas but failed to report their departure to the local authorities.

“For example, someone who used to live in Jakarta would have had a Jakartan ID card. He then moves to Depok. That person will now have a Depok ID card but may not have revoked the previous ID card,” Purba said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Purba said the problem of duplicate ID cards could be solved with the central government’s new policy of issuing electronic identity (e-ID) cards.

The Jakarta administration aims to distribute e-ID cards to all of its residents by the end of 2011, as part of the central government’s program to establish a single identity number for every citizen.