Workshop to ensure effective passport services held

Regional passport office, Chandigarh, on Saturday, organised a workshop for the village-level entrepreneurs, who will be operating respective common service centre (CSCs) in nearby rural areas.

Regional passport office, Chandigarh, on Saturday, organised a workshop for the village-level entrepreneurs, who will be operating respective common service centre (CSCs) in nearby rural areas. The main motive of this service is to expedite the passport application process and ensure transparent and people-friendly free delivery of passport services to the rural population.

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While addressing the gathering, Rakesh Aggarwal, regional passport officer (RPO) said more than one lakh CSCs rolled out across India to extend e-government services to rural population and through CSCs, the government of India was able to successfully deliver
government-to-citizen services.

Aggarwal added that in 2013, approximately eight lakh passports were issued in Punjab. The VLCs have been authorised by the ministry of external affairs. The VLEs were trained to assist the passport applicants with filling and uploading of passport applications online, payment of the applicable fee, and scheduling of appointment for the visit of Passport Sewa Kendra. All the services will be available at the fee of `100.

"We are confident that with regular training sessions, VLEs will be able to play a significant role in delivering passport services in a timely, transparent, and reliable manner. This is a progressive step towards establishing a more transparent system in which there will be no role of agents, who often misguide non-IT savvy rural population,"he said.