ID cards in short supply
Bangkok residents who need to renew their ID cards or obtain new ones will have to wait as all 50 district offices in the capital have run out of both the so-called "Smart Cards" and the current card, with a magnetic strip, Deputy City Clerk Rattaphol Meethanatha-worn said yesterday.
The "Smart Cards", embedded with microchips that contain all personal information, ran out on August 30 and the current type ran out yesterday after 350,000 of them, issued by the Interior Ministry for use in Bangkok, were used up while 650,000 had been distributed to the provinces.Rattaphol blamed the shortage on a corruption scandal surrounding the "Smart Cards" project, which had put the production of more cards on hold. He said expired cards or their temporary substitutes known as "Yellow Cards" would be valid for the next three months.
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