E-Paper
Server down for several hours at Pune passport office, applicants face harrowing time
Passport service at Pune regional passport office in Mundhwa was stalled for over five hours as applicants struggled to maintain calm amidst the breakdown of the main Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) data server, on Monday morning
Passport service at Pune regional passport office in Mundhwa was stalled for over five hours as applicants struggled to maintain calm amidst the breakdown of the main Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) data server, on Monday morning.
Many applicants faced a harrowing time as no assurance was given by the regional passport authority on when the service will resume. Later the policemen arrived at the passport office and promised quick help and assistance to the people.
The regional passport office issues 1,000 to 1,200 appointments on a daily basis. 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.
A student Anand Kumar, a resident of Katraj, said, “I was standing in the queue since 8 am and the server was down at around 9 am. The passport officials told us to again book an appointment slot, but it is time-consuming as it takes a month.”
“We have to adjust our work and other commitments and come so far for passport work,” he said
Pune regional passport officer Anant Kumar Takawale said, “The server is working smoothly now. ”
The Pune regional passport office runs seva kendra which caters to six districts- Pune, Ahmednagar, Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur and Solapur.
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.
