W

ith only a little over a month left before the deadline for the completion of the electronic identity (e-ID) data collection, the Home Ministry has asked the Jakarta administration to step up its work.

Home Ministry spokesman Reydonnyzar Moenek said on Thursday that the administration had only been able to collect identification data from less than 5.5 million people from a target of around 7.4 million.

“I believe that the administration can meet the deadline,” Moenek told The Jakarta Post.

The Home Ministry had allowed the city administration to push back its deadline for the registration period for electronic ID cards (e-KTP) for Jakarta residents from December 2011 to April 2012.

The administration made the deadline extension request citing snags in the delivery of e-ID data collection equipment from the ministry to local subdistrict offices.

The e-ID program was scheduled to start simultaneously at all 267 subdistrict offices in Jakarta and 197 regencies and municipalities across the country on Aug. 1 last year.

In the data collection process, residents were to visit their local subdistrict offices to provide basic information and have their biometric data recorded. The information would then be sent to the ministry database to be validated.

Moenek said that the ministry would begin distributing the new e-ID cards to residents whose municipalities or regencies had completed the data collection process.

“We will distribute the cards only in municipalities that have completed data collection,” he said.

The ministry had distributed e-ID cards in a number regencies in Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Bangka-Belitung.

“None of the Jakarta municipalities or regencies had completed the data collection. The sooner they complete it, the faster the residents will receive their new cards,” Moenek said.

Separately on Thursday, the Jakarta Civil Registration Agency chief, Purba Hutapea, said that the city had reached the final stage of e-ID data collection.

“We have seen far less people coming to the subdistrict offices each day. We now see an average of 10 people coming to each office each day,” Purba said.

The agency chief said that it was likely that there were people who had moved out from the city, but did not file reports to local officials.

The agency has recorded identification data from 1,193,763 people in West Jakarta; 600,299 people in Central Jakarta; 1,151,359 in South Jakarta; 1,529,713 in East Jakarta, 1,254,706 in North Jakarta and 13,342 million in the Thousand Islands regency.

The central government has targeted to establish a single identity number for every citizen and distribute e-ID cards to more than 105 million citizens by the end of 2012.

According to the civil registration law, citizens over the age of 17 years or who are married should apply for an ID card.

The card will contain information of marital status, blood type, parent names, employment, physical or mental disabilities, birth certificate, divorce certificate, place and date of birth, biometric fingerprints and a photo.

The government has recently announced its intention to add a health feature to the electronic identification (e-ID) card program, which will store each card holder’s personal health records.

The Assessment and Application of Technology Agency (BPPT) plan to implement an e-health program, which will also coincide with the launch of the second generation of e-ID cards, will use microchips to hold owners’ personal data, including their health records.