Sushma Swaraj helps couple get passports for disabled daughters

A retired tehsildar filed a petition on change.org on Monday about the plight of his polio-affiliated daughters and their difficulty in making a personal appearance at the passport office.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj helped a septuagenarian couple from Andhra Pradesh get passports for their disabled daughters.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj (Reuters file photo)

Swaraj, who is known to react promptly to SOS messages on Twitter, responded equally to a petition on change.org, an online platform for social change, and sent the passport officials to the couple for assistance.

The couple - Rallapalli Rama Subba Rao and Subbalakshmi - from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh was overjoyed when officials of the regional passport office came knocking on their door on Tuesday to enable their disabled daughters get their passports at their home.

Rao, a retired tehsildar, filed a petition on change.org on Monday about the plight of his polio-affiliated daughters and their difficulty in making a personal appearance at the passport office.

The Union minister, in response, on Monday night tweeted, “I have gone through your petition. We will definitely help” and sought his personal details.

Accordingly, officials from the RPO contacted the couple at their residence while the district special branch police too completed the necessary formalities.

The couple, which took care of the two daughters for over 40 years, now wanted to send them to the care of their brothers settled abroad and hence the need for passports.

Passport officials have already contacted us and taken the details, he said.

“Sushma ji’s prompt action restores our faith in good governance and I am really happy that our ministers are helping people,” the retired tehsildar added.