Introduced around three months back, the walk-in inquiry help desk at the Regional Passport Office (RPO) is proving to be a hit with applicants, with 300 to 400 queries for complex cases being dealt with every day.
Apart from providing 300 online appointments for queries daily, the office is addressing walk-in queries through this help desk, enabling faster processing of passport applications, after applicants understand and address the objections.
To speed up the process, the office had diverted some of its staff to the help desk.
Applications pertaining to name and address change, adverse police report and updating educational documents are considered “complex”.
An official at the Sector 34 office, who preferred not to be named due to the enforcement of the model code of conduct, said, “There are certain applications which require greater scrutiny. These are applications where the applicant is changing one of their particulars from the previous passport, cases where police report is adverse or cases where certain information has been suppressed by the applicant. These cases account for about 1% of the total applications processed.”
Applicant Deepak Sharma expressed, “I applied for a passport three months ago, but the online status was displaying as pending for police verification. After I raised a query on social media, I learnt about the walk-in help desk at the passport office, where I was told about the objections that needed my attention.”
{{/usCountry}}Applicant Deepak Sharma expressed, “I applied for a passport three months ago, but the online status was displaying as pending for police verification. After I raised a query on social media, I learnt about the walk-in help desk at the passport office, where I was told about the objections that needed my attention.”
{{/usCountry}}As many as 8,42,375 passports were granted at the RPO from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024.
An official said apart from the 4,865 applications being processed daily and the walk-in service, the office also assigned a team to handle queries and address issues through e-mail and social media.
There are three Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) under the RPO — PSK Chandigarh, PSK Ambala and PSK Ludhiana. The areas covered by PSK Chandigarh include Mohali, Chandigarh, Panchkula, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ropar, Bathinda, Sangrur, Barnala, Patiala, and Mansa.
Similarly, PSK Ludhiana serves Ludhiana, Khanna, Jagraon, and Moga. PSK Ambala caters to people from Ambala, Jind, Karnal, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Bhiwani, Yamuna Nagar, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa. Besides these there are 12 post office PSKs under the Chandigarh RPO.
The RPO releases 1,175 normal and 285 Tatkal appointments daily. Additionally, four mobile vans, with 80 appointment slots each, are also stationed outside the office.