Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics is going to prepare a comprehensive database incorporating all data of every citizen.

Known as National Population Register (NPR), the database will keep record of the details of a citizen that will enable the government to implement its various services such as the social safety nets.

Dr Shahadat Hossain, team leader of the NPR and a former director of BBS, disclosed the project details in a presentation during a workshop held at the BBS auditorium in the capital yesterday.

Addressing the event, Planning Minister MA Mannan said the NPR would be something similar to the Indian government’s Aadhaar programme.

He directed the BBS officials to implement the project properly.

“Your works are now more visible and people are also more interested about your work. However, there are criticisms of your works as well. So, you have to keep in mind that the project has to be done perfectly,” the minister added.

The country’s all other databases, including the National Identity (NID) Card database of the Election Commission, will be linked with NPR through application programming interface (API).

Dr Shahadat told The Daily Star that they have already prepared a preliminary development project proposal (DPP) for the NPR project which will be implemented in the next five years.

The DPP will be sent to the planning ministry soon for its approval, he said, adding the project’s implementation will start after the approval.

He also said once the database is created, it will be operated under the government’s revenue budget and will be updated annually.

According to Shahadat’s presentation, BBS has been working for the project since 2010.

Already, three pilot projects in this regard were held in three upazilas.

State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam said the project was going to be a good initiative of the government, stressing the need for implementing it on time.

There are various allegations of fraudulence regarding distributions of allowances under the social safety net schemes, he said.

At times, allegation was raised that real beneficiaries were not included but those who were not eligible got the allowance, he added.

Once the NPR is implemented, such issues will be resolved, he said, adding that it would also help address land-related issues and statistics on foreign nationals living in Bangladesh.

The objective of NPR is to create and regularly updating mechanism of a comprehensive identity-database incorporating all demographic and biometric credentials.

Registering name in NPR will not be mandatory but a must for getting any type of benefits and services.

Once data of a person is recorded it will be preserved permanently even after death of that person.