Kochi: In order to make the process of issuing passports more hassle-free, the central government has asked state governments to accept passport applications in all districts at a designated office, which could be either that of the district magistrate or that of the superintendent of police, Kochi regional passport officer C Felix Rozario said.
He told mediapersons that the centre is also planning to set up district passport cells with computer links with the concerned passport office. "This will help the applicant to follow up the progress of police verification at the district level itself."
"The state governments will have to reimburse the cost of manpower, computer equipment and office space for this new facility. This has already been launched in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim and Nagaland. Though we had plans to start the facility in Kerala from February 2002, the planning went haywire due to the month-long government employees strike," Rozario said.
Another major initiative is the online registration of passport applications. "This will become a reality in Kerala within a months time. This will be a great boon for the applicants as they can avoid queues. But the application fees will have to be paid at the passport office counters itself," Rozario said. "No extra fee will be levied for online registration. This facility is presently available at Bangalore."
Maintaining that the online registration facility is part of the ongoing modernisation drive in passport offices, Rozario said: "The government has also embarked on a project for computerisation of consular wings in the missions and posts abroad and the consular wings at the High Commission of India, Colombo, and the Consulate-General of India, Dubai."
The system will be implemented only after testing and stabilising the software and standardising the hardware. "This will enable foreign consulates to issue visas and provide passport services in few hours," he said.
Rozario said the modernisation process is on in passport offices, with about 80 per cent of the offices being computerised. "At present, the passports are filled in manually. By mid-June 2002, it will be done with the help of machines. This will take Indian passports to international standards."
Justifying the hike in the passport application fee, which came into effect this month, Rozario said it was done to meet the rising costs of issue of passports and the present and projected cost of modernisation of offices, computerisation and the cost involved in police verification. "There was no profit motive."
Though the Tatkal scheme has been very successful in meeting the genuine demands of applicants for the urgent issue of passports, the fee for the scheme has not be raised, Rozario said.
|
|
