LARKANA, Nov 5: The Sindh government on Monday kicked off the process of its employees’ verification through the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) throughout the province.

Nadra, which has set up five centres, one in each of the five divisional headquarters, is supposed to complete the process by December 15, 2012, according to Assistant Commissioner (general) Amir Ali Mirani, who is the focal person of the process in the Larkana division.

In 24 provincial departments (both devolved and un-devolved) there were around 40,000 regular employees drawing their salaries from the treasury, he said.

Long queues of government employees were seen at the only centre set up for entire division. They thronged on Nadra centre apprehending that their salaries might be withheld if they failed to get the Smart Card and Employment Card from the Nadra office after getting their identity and documents verified.

The Sindh government has already provided the list of its employees to Nadra for verification. This process would also filter out the dual jobs if undertaken by one person, said Larkana Commissioner Dr Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo while talking to Dawn.

It is learnt that the commissioner on Nov 1 wrote to the Services and General Administration Secretary Syed Mumtaz Shah for the opening of one Nadra centre in each district for the gigantic job keeping in view the large number of people supposed to get their cases verified and obtain the cards.

“I have also spoken to the secretary on Monday to make a request in this regard,” Mr Mangnejo said, adding that a sufficient number of centres would help expedite the process and minimise the inconvenience to government employees. He said he communicated and discussed the issue with Nadra officials in Sukkur. Hopefully, two more centres would be opened — one in Shikarpur district and the other in Kashmore district — within a couple of days, the commissioner said.

Mr Mirani said the deadline set for the completion of the process seemed unrealistic given the number of cases. He was of the view that it would take at least six months to accomplish the task. In Larkana and Qambar-Shahdadkot districts alone, Nadra would have to verify 18,000 cases and issue them the cards, he said.

The commissioner also supported his contention and called for extending the date.

Nadra’s Larkana centre has a capacity of processing 200 cases per day while the number of employees who turned up at the centre on Monday appeared to much higher. Many of them had to travel to Larkana from other cities, towns and districts.

The commissioner recalled that when he undertook the verification of only education department employees in Shikarpur district (where he held the office of deputy commissioner) under the Project to Improve Financial Reporting and Auditing, the exercise had resulted in a saving of a huge amount of money clandestinely drawn every month by a number of employees.