DUNGUN: The National Registration Department received 59,037 applications to replace identification cards this year.
Its director-general, Badrul Hisham Alias said the replacements were due to losses from negligence, crime and natural disasters, with negligence ranking the highest, with 55,504 applications, disaster (2,575 applications) and crime (958 applications).
"Negligence is when for instance, they passed their identification cards to security guards to enter certain premises but forgot to take back their identification cards when they leave... Selangor has the highest of such applications with 8,482, followed by Kuala Lumpur (7,427 applications) and Johor (7,247 applications).
This sort of thing should not happen as identification cards are the most important documents that need to be kept well,” he said after presenting six new identification cards on Saturday (March 16) to residents of Kampung Pasir Raja and Kampung Shukor who lost their cards during the floods.
He also added that the department would continue its Mekar Diaspora programme in the United States in June and provide registration services and advice to Malaysians abroad.
"We choose the programme's based on the number of Malaysians there as many of them are abroad and require our services, as returning home can be a costly affair.
"So what the Madani government does is to go to Malaysians and help them, like the programme in Jeddah last January,” he added. - Bernama
