Government endorses bill of Hadarca and Munteanu, but does not approve it

The Cabinet endorsed the legislative initiative submitted by Liberal MPs Ion Hadarca and Valeriu Munteanu, which obliges the holders of Soviet-type passports (model of 1974) to make identity cards by July 1, 2013, but didn’t approve it yet, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The idea is good, but its implementation will cause many problems. The holders of Soviet-type passports are mainly elderly persons, of over 70, who live in rural areas. Many of them are confined to bed or move with difficulty and cannot present themselves at document issuing offices in district centers. There are also persons who do not want to be issued with identity cards for religious reasons,” said Minister of Information and Communication Technology Pavel Filip. He also said that an estimated 33.8 million lei will be needed to implement this project within the terms set by the MPs. This is much more than the net profit of IS Registru. Prime Minister Vlad Filat ordered creating a working group under the aegis of the ICT Ministry, which will do the calculations and will identify resources for covering the costs. The issue will be discussed again afterward.