MEA proposes more district passport offices

The external affairs ministry proposes to open a passport office in every district that has at least 15,000 passport applicants a year. Jayanth Jacob reports.

The external affairs ministry proposes to open a passport office in every district that has at least 15,000 passport applicants a year.

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As it opens the 50th passport seva kendra (PSK) in Delhi at Herald House, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg on Thursday, a more ambitious plan for issuing of passports is set to be rolled out soon.

The new plan aims to make the process of acquiring a passport easier. If a district has less than 15,000 passport applications, it will become a collection centre of the nearest passport seva kendra. “The aim is to get rid of agents and bribes. You submit applications online, and go for the verification of the documents on the date of appointment”, explained an official.

There is also a plan to have more passport printing centres. The fingerprints and photographs of the applicants will be taken at the centre itself.

To streamline the process further better coordination is planned between the police department and the department of post. There is a move to give incentive to the postman. For every passport delivered, he will be paid R50 and he will expected to send an SMS to the client informing him/her that the passport is ready for collection. There will also be 24X7 helpline for tracking the progress of the passport. “In short, after police verification we want to give passport to an applicant within seven days", said the official.