Passport applicants stranded for 6 hours as server fail

The management of the Lower Parel Passport Seva Kendra refused to speak to the media. The in-charge of the Seva Kendra said, “The central government will talk to the press. We are not authorised to do so,” and asked the guards to escort the HT reporter from the premises

Mumbai: Sixty-four-year-old Sabiha Hathi from Mazgaon had been waiting for over five hours outside the Lower Parel Passport Seva Kendra on Monday to get the spelling of her name corrected on her passport.

Mumbai, India - July 25, 2022: Crowd outside the Worli Passport Office after its server was down, causing inconvenience to people, in Mumbai, India, on Monday, July 25, 2022. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

Hathi, who had applied for a Green Card in the US, wanted the correction on an urgent basis as her appointment with the US government was fixed for next month.

“I am a widow and need to go to the US to visit my son and daughter. It was just a spelling correction,” said the Mazgaon resident.

Like her, hundreds of other applicants for fresh and renewal of passports were left stranded for six hours at the Seva Kendra on Monday, owing to server failure across the country.

The management of the Lower Parel Passport Seva Kendra refused to speak to the media. The in-charge of the Seva Kendra said, “The central government will talk to the press. We are not authorised to do so,” and asked the guards to escort the HT reporter from the premises.

Vijay Lohar, constable who was posted outside the Seva Kendra to manage the crowd was consoling the applicants, as many of them had come from far off places like Delhi and Indore who got into an argument with the staff, who in turn told them that they should have applied for a passport from Indore or Delhi.

Shanon Vyas (40) working for Zensar company has to visit Singapore for office work on August 3, “What’s the point of centralising the system if I cannot come to Mumbai and get my passport renewal instead of Indore. I got an appointment from Mumbai and now the next day for the earliest appointment available is August 12,” said Vyas.

“They are telling applicants to book another appointment but will not adjust them tomorrow. They should be prepared for extra work tomorrow if their server is down today,” said Vyas.

At 2.22pm, the staff of the Seva Kendra announced that they were checking to see if the server’s failure had been rectified. At 2.30pm the applicants who had booked an appointment for 8.40am were then asked to enter the premises.

“My daughter is one year old and I have been waiting for her since morning with her and my wife. The first time they misspelt her name due to which the application was rejected. Now I have come here for the second time and the servers are down,” said Parvez Khan, an employee of a shopping company who had come to Seva Kendra with his wife and his toddler.

Applicants face harrowing time in Pune

Several applicants in Pune faced a harrowing time as no assurance was given by the regional passport authority in Mundhwa on when the service will resume. Later, the policemen arrived at the passport office and promised quick help and assistance to the people.

Passport applicants were upset over the trouble and demanded strict action against those found complacent in their duties.

“We had an appointment today. On reaching the passport office in Mundhwa, we found that the server was down. It was a long wait till 2.30 pm when the server started functioning again. The passport office could have informed us via SMS or email regarding the issue,” said Samir Sankhe, a resident of Baner.

“We adjust our work timings and then schedule an appointment. Many like us suffered because of lack of communication by the passport authorities,” said Sankhe.

Besides Pune, official work at many regional passport seva kendra was hit following the technical failure of the data server. According to officials, Pune, Parbhani and Amravati passport office servers were shut since 9 am leading to queues outside the government offices. The passport office server at Amravati developed a technical snag around 10 am and the server restarted at 2:15 pm. Passport services resumed at 2.15 pm, the common time when all servers restarted in the state of Maharashtra and Goa. Later, the passport offices put up public information stating that servers are down.