Taking a dig at BJP leader LK Advani, Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday that his "curious announcement" that an NDA government would "initiate" the Multi-Purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) project shows "either ignorance and slumber or denial of facts".

Chidambaram, while releasing a Congress document on its plan of action to fight terror, said the MNIC project, a brainchild of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, has already been launched by the UPA government and its pilot project was completed on March 31 last year.

"Shri LK Advani has recently made a curious announcement that the BJP will initiate the MNIC project if it comes to power in the 2009 elections," the Home Minister said.

Advani had made the statement while unveiling the party's IT vision document last month. "This is a remarkable statement that demonstrates either ignorance and slumber or denial of facts. The truth is that the MNIC project has forged ahead under the Congress-led UPA government while the BJP has been in deep slumber," Chidambaram said while reading out from the document.

The Home Minister said 12 lakh identity cards have been delivered along with creation of a database of 24.64 lakh people.

Preparations for the National Population Register (NPR) along with the census of 2011 are underway and once it is ready, MNICs would be issued to all usual residents.

"Meanwhile, having regard to the urgency of the matter, it has been decided to create the NPR of coastal villages and towns in 2009-10 and to issue cards to all usual residents in these coastal villages and towns as well as in the whole of Andaman and Nicobar Islands," he said.

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