An ePopulation Register assigning a special ‘all-Government service’ number launched

The ‘ePopulation Register’ project was launched by Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister John Seneviratne at the Colombo Divisional Secretariat last week Associated with Minister Seneviratne in the launch was Senior Minister for Urban Affairs A. H. M. Fowzie and Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya.

ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) sources said that this was another national project under the eSri Lanka Development Programme implemented under the guidance of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Speaking on this occasion Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister John Seneviratne said that this project was an epoch-making project. “It will contribute to making the benefits of ICT be reflected in providing public service to the people in such a comfortable manner as has not been done ever before.”

Underlining the manner the ePopulation Register Project stands out among several other past ICT-based projects the Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister said: “In the future information related to all births, marriages and deaths occurring in Sri Lanka will be incorporated into a computerised information system at the time the incidents are registered. Thanks to the ePopulation Register project, with the implementation of this new information system every citizen born in this country will be assigned a special identification code number. It will be possible to use this number in all future Government services for the person concerned not only in one Department but in all relevant Government Departments/institutions.”

Addressing the gathering briefly but most earnestly Telecommunication and IT Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitya underlined the importance of making maximum use of ICT to make lives of people more comfortable. “The ePopulation Register project will do away with the past difficulties. There have been times when people used to come to Colombo from far distant places like Monaragala travelling the previous night just to be told to come on another day.”

The ePopulation Register will assign a number to each Sri Lankan at the very birth registration which could be used for several of his other future needs for public service. An insight into the facility that this project will bring about could be had by a look at the format of two of the forms developed for use under this project, namely form for the “birth certificate” and “certificate issued for the registration of a person in the population”.

Speaking on this occasion ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura said: “The ‘ePopulation Register’ is the main IT database containing primary data of this country’s citizens. While this ePopulation Register is very important for making more efficient the services the Government provides to the public, it enables Government institutions to exchange citizen information safely and speedily. While with the introduction of the ePopulation Register, the method of registering of individual birth certificate becomes simple, the difficulties up to now experienced will be no more.

The actual operation of this ‘ePopulation’ project, jointly implemented by the Public Administration and Home Affairs Ministry and the Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministry, was carried out by the Registrar General’s Department and ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA). Referring to the objectives of the ePopulation Register project, ICTA CEO said: “The objective of the project is to create and maintain a single source of consolidated citizen information in order for the Government to verify the identities of citizens before providing Government centric services.”

Describing the project’s salient features Dewapura said it will be a National Database of citizen information that will be accurate, reliable and current. Such information will be accessed by authorised Government institutions that offer many citizen services. It will facilitate information sharing between Government institutions, and notify changes to dynamic information held within the system, while simultaneously protecting the privacy rights of each citizen by introducing necessary controls.

As part of the ePopulation Register project, the formats of the birth/death and marriage certificates are also changed to be more efficient in the process. The new certificates will carry a 2D barcode for electronic verification in the certificates.

Apart from the life event certificates, all the citizens will receive a Population Register System (PRS) Certificate to the citizens to acknowledge registration of the citizen in to ePopulation Register System. This also carries a 2D barcode for the electronic system.

In order to legalise all the above, a regulation of the ICT Act is made effective from 7 June 2012.

“Steps are being taken to introduce a public interface ePopulation register as well in the near future,” Dewapura pointed out.