To ensure prompt
delivery of passports, the postal department has been roped in.
NEW DELHI: The TOI campaign on the passport logjam
has made the government put reforms on the fast track. In an unprecedented
move, the ministry of external affairs on Thursday announced a 'Passport Mela'
this weekend at many PSKs countrywide - the kendras will remain open on
Saturday and Sunday and people can just walk in, without an appointment. This
practice will continue till the entire backlog has been cleared.
In a special briefing to TOI, Raghavendra Shastry, adviser to
external affairs minister S M Krishna, gave details of fresh measures that are
expected to address the concerns raised by the people - and reported by this
newspaper to help make the new passport application process smoother and
transparent.
The ministry has also reviewed the online appointment process,
and from Friday, an additional 30% slots are being released. This will take the
number of daily slots in the capital from 1,650 to 2,050. Moreover, appointments
will now be given for up to 30 days instead
of 15. "This way, we believe we will be able to process 6 lakh
applications in the country this year," said chief passport officer and
joint secretary in MEA Muktesh
Kumar Pardeshi.
"We have taken the suggestions given by TOI seriously and
want people to know that we are working hard on them. There has been a huge
backlog of applications due to the holiday rush, which is why we are
having this passport mela. MEA is doing it for the first time in the country.
This will help us smoothen the service in about six weeks from now," said
Shastry.
"We will entertain walk-ins only on weekends. And people
need not form queues early in the morning. They can come anytime after
10am," said Basant K Gupta, additional secretary, consular passport &
visa division, MEA.
The ministry has reiterated its promise of revisiting its
website. "There has been a lot of confusion over the passport application
website. The older site, www.passport.gov.in is no longer functional but people
have been visiting it. Therefore, we are going to redirect traffic from there
to our functional portal, www.passportindia.gov.in. We are also going to
prepare a fresh list of documents required for applying under various
categories. There will be no ambiguity in %the process anymore," Gupta
said.
Does this mean that there will be no more surprise demands for
additional documents by PSKs? "Yes. TCS staff will no longer decide what
documents are needed. Now, only government officials will check if all
documents are in place and if anything else is required," said Gupta.
So far, the applicants who were turned back by PSKs for lack of
documents had to try their luck again with %the online appointment system to
book a slot. "This will not happen anymore. If there is any requirement of
a document, an applicant will be given three days to return with the
papers," Pardeshi said.
To ensure prompt delivery of passports, the postal department has
been roped in. "The postman will be given an incentive of Rs 50 per
delivery. He will call up or send an SMS before coming to ensure that the
passport is delivered to the person to whom it is issued," said
Raghavendra Shastry, advisor to minister of external affairs.
He said that the system will be implemented across the country
and S M Krishna will personally write to all state chief ministers to ensure
implementation of the revised rules.
Apart from Delhi, passport melas will be held at the following
places: RPO, Koramangla, and PSKs at Sai Arcade, Lalbagh, Mangalore and Hubli
in Bangalore; RPO and PSKs at Nelson Manickam Road, Saligramam, and Tambaram in
Chennai; RPO and PSKs at Begumpet, Ameerpet, Toli Chowki, Vijayawada, Tirupati
and Nizamabad in Hyderabad; RPO and PSKs in Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, and
Gorakhpur; and passport office at 14 Mall Road in Amristar.
Source : The Times
of India, June 22, 2012
source : http://aipeup3bbsr.blogspot.in/
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