Haryana Police brings down passport verification time from 21 days to five days

The passport verification process of the Haryana Police that earlier used to take 21 days has been brought down to five days across the state, said police officials.

The passport verification process of the Haryana Police that earlier used to take 21 days has been brought down to five days across the state, said police officials. The state is trying hard to cut it down to three days.

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The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Haryana Police has also taken an initiative to improve the system further by launching an m-passport police application for speedy submission of requests for verification. The application allows field-level verification officers to directly upload the verification report on the system digitally.

Commenting on the matter, Anil Rao, the additional director general of police, CID, said that earlier, it used to take a total of 71 days to issue an Indian passport. This was nearly three times than the recommended period of 24 days fixed by the government. The police took twice as long as they should — 42 instead of 21 days — to verify applicants’ information. “The average time taken earlier was more than 21 days. The situation has now significantly improved,” Rao said.

There are two regional passport offices in the region — one in Delhi and the other in Chandigarh — that cater to the residents of Haryana. While Gurugram, Faridabad, Palwal, Nuh, Narnaul, Rewari, Jhajjar, Rohtak, Sonepat and Charkhi Dadri are covered by the Delhi office, the Chandigarh office covers areas such as Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Hisar, Hansi, Kaithal, Bhiwani, Sirsa, Jind, Fatehabad, Karnal and Panipat, said the police.

The passport applications received in Delhi and Chandigarh are sent online to their respective districts for verification. The security branch of the district concerned then downloads them and sends a hard copy to the police station concerned, along with a copy to CID headquarters.

Rao said that a CID verification is mainly conducted to determine if the applicant’s name exists on any surveillance list, lists of hardcore terrorists, harbourers, history sheeters, etc.

The Online Passport Sewa project was implemented in Haryana in May 2010. Since CID acts as a nodal agency in conducting verification of applications, strenuous efforts were made by officers of the Haryana Police and the CID to do away with the delay.

The Government of India has fixed 21 days for police verification for which ₹150 per application is reimbursed to the respective state. “If verification is sent before 21 days, then ₹150 per application is reimbursed. “ We have brought down the average time taken in verification of passport application to five days. Despite a heavy rush of applications, we are trying our best to cut down on the verification time,” said Rao, adding that this would be brought down to three days.

Due its impressive performance, the state was adjudged as one of the three best states in India by the ministry of external affairs on Passport Seva Dewas last year. The state has received nearly ₹20 crore last year and is expecting to receive ₹25 crore, said Rao. Last week, Haryana Police bagged the third rank in speedy passport verification across the country.