Summary: The Passport Office at Agartala is likely to be operationalize by early next year, said an senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs on Monday. "Towards the end of this month or in the early weeks of January itself, so it's going to operationalize very soon," said A K Sobti, Director, and Passport Seva Project (PSP). The PSP will be a great benefit for those from the state wishing to get a passport for which they had to wait for several months as passports were being issued from Kolkata. Recently hundreds of handwritten passports became invalid after they were replaced by machine readable passports as of November 24th last year.

"Handwritten passports have been banned as per the requirement of the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). Now, they will not be accepting manual passports anywhere across the world. So it is in the interest of the applicant or the citizens that they should go for MRZ (machine readable zone) passports so that they are not put to any harassment." Sobti added.

Sobti along with V K Jain, another official of the MEA, arrived here today to review the work of the mini Passport Seva Kendra prior its inauguration. The mini Passport Seva Kendra is being set up in Agartala to facilitate delivery of passports. The Tripura government has written a letter requesting the Centre to set up a Passport office in Agartala. In the entire northeastern region, there is only one passport office in Guwahati and one Passport Seva Kendra in Manipur. The Kolkata Regional Passport office controls the Tripura Passport Seva.

Summary: Regional Passport Office (RPO) Ahmedabad disposed of 390 pending cases and granted as many passports to applicants at the `Passport Maha Adalat' held at its main office in Gulbai Tekra recently. Out of 1,400 notices issued, 720 applicants presented themselves before authorities. As many as 390 cases were resolved and passports issued. Also, Rs 3.20 lakh was collected in fine. The next maha adalat will be held on December 23. In the second such adalat held on November 27, the RPO had disposed of 532 pending cases and had granted passports to applicants. The total number of files pending on account of non-response by applicants was 4,000. Of this, over 1,000 were disposed of last month.

Summary: A Passport Adalat was held on last Saturday at the Regional Passport Office, Railway Board Building in Shimla. Complaints submitted by the applicants before 31st Dec, 2014 were handled swiftly and redressed. International City Aviation Organization (ICAO) has requested all residents of Himachal Pradesh to get their Non Machine Readable Passports (non-MRP) replaced by Machine Readable Passports (MRP) as the non-MRPs stand invalid w.e.f 24/11/2014. For more information, applicants were advised to visit the website or call up the nearest passport office.

Summary: Regional passport officials issued 423 new passports on Saturday, allaying fears of those who lost their passports in the recent floods. The passport mela held on Saturday at three Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) and the Regional Passport Office (RPO) saw people turning up from various districts for seeking re-issue of passports lost or damaged in the floods.

"Today we issued 423 passports to people, whose passport got lost or damaged in floods. The turnout was good," said R. Uma Maheshwari, Deputy Passport Officer. She said there were cases of people wanting to fly out of the country urgently because jobs and medical reasons. "A man from Mumbai was to join for his first job abroad and he lost his passport, we issued him a new passport across the counter," she added. "There were other cases including that of an NRI stranded after the floods. He was also promptly issued a passport," Uma said.

Passports were issued without any police enquiry depending on the immediacy of the case, officials said. There was confusion prevailing at the PSKs despite MEA releasing an official statement about the two-month long scheme for the issue of new passports in lieu of lost/ damaged ones. Janarthan, an applicant who arrived at the Amjikarnai PSK with his son who lost his passport during the flood, said: "I want to get the application submitted today, as we have been told by officials that after today's mela, the fee would be Rs 1,500." Ziya, another applicant who had a damaged passport, said, "I have been asked to come with an FIR for a damaged passport." His confusion was later cleared. The Nodal Officer at the RPO informed the staff at the PSK that there is no need for an applicant to furnish an FIR for a damaged passport.

Summary: An incorrect date of birth on a passport would have to be rectified within five years of the booklet being issued, according to a new rule notified by the ministry of external affairs with effect from November 26. The regional passport office in Calcutta receives 60 to 70 applications a year seeking rectification of dates of birth that have been incorrectly submitted or printed.

In the absence of a time limit, there have been instances of people applying for a change almost 30 years after receiving their first passport booklets, an official said. An ordinary passport is issued with a 10-year validity, except when the applicant is a minor. Unless specified at the time of applying for renewal, a fresh passport is issued without any change in the personal particulars.

The new rule, applicable to everyone with an Indian passport, states that an applicant must provide a copy of a bona fide birth certificate to get the date of birth changed. "Passport holders applying for a change will have to support their application with a valid government birth certificate. Nothing else, not even a court affidavit, will be considered," Geetika Srivastava, regional passport officer at Calcutta, said.

The external affairs ministry amended the rule following a recent Kerala High Court judgment on correcting a person's date of birth on his/her passport, a ministry source said. The court had cited chances of fraud while questioning the intention of a person if he or she hadn't sought a rectification within five years of the passport being issued. An application for amendment might also indicate that the person had originally provided false documents to get the passport.

The notification regarding the new rule states:

In case of a clerical error, a fresh passport would be issued against charges for a new booklet, If it is found that an applicant's birth certificate issued by the government contradicts documents which he/she had initially submitted, the date of birth on the passport would be amended. But the applicant would be fined for submitting false documents initially. The only exception to the five-year limit is for a person who was a minor when the passport was issued, provided the applicant produces a birth certificate issued by the government while requesting for a change in the date of birth.

Summary: The process of passport clearance has been streamlined to a great extent, but it still lacks flexibility and a sense of urgency. Aparajita Dandekar (name changed on request), a freelance writer, has a fear of flying which kept her applying for a passport for the better part of a decade. However, what she admittedly feared more acutely was bureaucratic red tape. But the sheer joy of finally being chosen to be flown to Europe and three different Scandinavian Capitals for a project last month which she had been "overlooked for" twice before - was enough to convince her to take the plunge and confront both her anxieties.

While her fear of government procedure would be proved wrong, police verification, however, would be a different ball game altogether. Horror stories of endless trips to and serpentine queues outside passport offices, inconvenience both due to the weather and "the attitude of babus", she admitted, had ensured that she keep putting off applying for a passport.

But, as luck would have it, Ms. Dandekar would get her passport precisely a week after applying under the tatkal category even if the seemingly simple process of police verification would take almost the same time. "I was getting photocopies of some documents near a local travel agent's office when I realised I had to get over my fear of red tape just like my fear of flying; I asked around and was told that 'everything was online' and decided to give it a go," Ms. Dandekar said.

By the time the auto rickshaw she had hailed drove her back home, Ms. Dandekar was almost through with her tatkal passport application on her smart phone. Two days later, she recalled, she was able to procure an appointment at the PSK located on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg which she reached half an hour before she was supposed to be allowed entry.

"The only rush I encountered was outside the Herald House but inside, thanks to the token system, there was no jostling, no cutting lines and no noise; all I had to do was to remember my token number to pop up on a series of screens which guided me from one level to the next," she said. Two hours later, when looking for an auto outside the PSK, she received a text message saying that her application had been processed. Next Monday, precisely a week after her appointment, Ms. Dandekar received another text message informing her that her passport had been despatched.

Police verification, however, was a tough nut to crack since she had to make incessant calls to the local police station to get herself verified before she flew. Prateek Saxena, 35, a sales executive complained of how the system had been streamlined but still "lacked flexibility". "I went to the PSK with my bank passbook as residence proof which I was told was a problem and they would need me to fill an annexure; not only did they not have the annexure that they wanted me to fill, I had to pay Rs. 100 to get it printed and another Rs. 500 to get it two notary stamps for it to be a valid document," he said. When he managed to get his passport, he complained, police verification "took more than a month" to fructify. "I'm glad I wasn't supposed to put my passport to use any time soon because getting the police clearance was very difficult, hassling and took more than three weeks," he added.

According to the Annual Report on Consular, Passport and Visa Services for the year 2014-15, between January and December 2014, the Ministry processed approximately 1.01 crore passport and related services applications. By December 31, 2014, according to the report, as many as 5,70,35,943 Indian citizens held valid passports placing the country third behind China and the United States in terms of global passport issuance.

The Passport Seva Programme, being run in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode and as part of the National e-Governance Plan with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) which was rolled out during 2011-12 has completed two and half years of "successful operations" at 77 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) which boast of a consolidated daily footfall of 50,000 applicants.

Case study

'The procedure is simple and systematic'

Pranav Sachdeva, who recently got his passport and has "already used it in style", was contemplating honeymooning "somewhere in India instead of abroad" because he was more than certain that his passport application wouldn't be processed in time. "I grew up at a tough neighbourhood in Old Delhi and have seen how difficult the most basic government procedures can be; so getting a passport was high on my list of priorities even while being part of ceremonies related to my own marriage," he said.

When he let his wife-to-be on his apprehension, she made him promise that he would at least try to get a passport so that the couple could at least contemplate a trip - their first as husband and wife - abroad. "Since I was still anxious, my wife decided to fill the application form for me in the very midst of our marriage frenzy, get me an appointment and simply asked me to show up at the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) - but I still had my concerns," he said.

Once at the PSK, however, Mr. Sachdeva said he tangibly felt his "apprehensions melting away". "I was very, very surprised - in a good way, of course. That image of a congested government office that I had grown up with had been replaced by a wholly and evidently professional environment like a corporate office," he said. "There was a token system in place which was not only helpful in guiding applicants like me from across consecutive steps of the process but the procedure, in itself, was so simple and systematised that it was not cumbersome at all," he said adding that he finally ended up honeymooning in Sri Lanka for a week.

How to apply for a Passport Online

1. Visit Passport Seva Portal www.passportindia.gov.in
2. Register yourself and provide personal details
3. Log in to the portal
4. Select required service (opt for a new passport or re-issue of passport)
5. Download the form that follows or fill it online
6. Schedule an appointment at a Passport Seva Kendra (PSK), make payment once appointment is secure.
7. Payment can be made through net banking, debit card, credit card
8. print your application
9. Visit the PSK in the scheduled date with required documents

Summary: A passport for the footloose Gujarati is not just a prerequisite for travelling abroad but also an important identity document. The regional passport office aims to issue 5 lakh passports in 2015. While the waiting period for the document has been reduced considerably over the years, the primary stage -Passport Verification (PV) by the police -accounts for nearly a month.

The national benchmark for processing the PV application has been set by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) at 21 days for the police. (Till 2013, it was 49 days.) If the police complete the process within the stipulated time limit, they get Rs 150 per passport. If they fail to do so, the police get Rs 50 for the same. In the past two months, seven police districts have managed to process all the applications within the stipulated timeframe on their own initiative. Two districts which have comparatively lower PV traffic, managed to complete the process within six working days, four other districts completed it in up to 16 days. As per November data, Ahmedabad city, which alone accounts for nearly 1lakh applications annually, processed 95% of the PVs in 16 days.

Virendra Singh Yadav, superintendent of police, Gandhinagar, said that till mid-2015 the PV clearance time was 25 working days in 80% of the cases. In November this year, this had improved to 11 days for all applications. "We get nearly 200 applications every day. These are processed by the local IB (LIB branch and the respective police stations, "said Yadav.

"We observed that the maximum time is taken in photo verification which is done by the police station inspector. As the rules specify verification by a police officer, we got a head constable or assistant sub-inspector (ASI) to do the job. We decided to club the address verification and photo verification together into a single step This not only reduced time but also ensured that the applicant had to go to the police station only once," said the Gandhinagar SP .

ZA Khan, regional pas sport officer, said they had issued 4.2 lakh passports in 2014 this year, they expect the figure to reach 5 lakh passports "When the new verification process was launched in 2012 we had conducted a detailed awareness drive with Gujarat police that involved filling up data in digital forms and fin ding ways of reducing the delay," he said.

The passport has become the ultimate identity paper, particularly in Gujarat which has a high number of outbound travellers and immigration aspirants seeking the coveted document. Given the rush, the time taken for Passport Verification (PV) needs to be reduced. Simple steps taken by officials in some Gujarat districts show that with better management and coordination among agencies, the time-taking PV process can be shortened. This will help thousands of applicants.

Summary: Around 532 people were granted early New Year gifts after the Regional Passport Office cleared their applications for passports on Friday. As the government body continued their attempt to clear the massive backlog of 4,000 pending applications, the second Maha adalat saw a turnout of 700 people. Interestingly, the office also collected a whopping Rs 2.1 lakh penalty in one day.

The idea is to clear the backlog of 4,000 cases, all registered till December 2014, said Regional Passport Officer Zaighamali Khan, confirming the authorities will grant or reject all the pending cases before December 23, 2015. "We started clearing these applications from September this year. While our first Maha adalat in October saw 413 applicants queue up to get documents for their passports cleared, 700 people queued up at the office on Friday. We had sent notices to 1,800 applicants," Khan explained. Of the pending applications that were cleared or rejected on Friday, 420 cases had been on hold due to an error in the name of the applicant's parents in the documents while 70 had a criminal history.

The other applications had been pending on grounds of non-verification of the address by the police or change in birthdates of the applicants, among other things. "Applicants need to be sure about the details they are sharing in the documents. In case of changes, we generally bring in the Gram Panchayat registrar to verify the details, especially in the case of disparity in personal details, like birth dates, etc. Unfortunately, a large number of people are unconcerned about the accuracy of information in their documents; they do not respond to queries nor do they produce documents as informed," added Khan, citing some of the reasons for the pending passports.

Meanwhile, Deputy Passport Officer Neelam Rani added, "The regional passport office will organise two more adalats - one on December 11 and the last on December 23 - where we will clear the remaining cases. These will include the 1,500 rollout cases that are stuck due to the police or the passport office."

Summary: 50 cases were resolved in the Passport Adalat held by the Regional Passport Office on Friday 27th November, 2015. The Adalat received a total of 63 applications.

Summary: If you want to get your birth date changed on your passport now be exact vigilant as the Ministry of External Affairs has issued a notification to passport authorities, asking them to be stringent with application related to birth date change following the recent Kerala high court judgement.

In lieu of this judgement, the circular, issued by MEA states that if an applicant applies for the change of date of birth in the passport within a reasonable period of time i.e. within a span of five years from the date of issue of passport, the request will be considered. However, the birth certificate issued by the registrar state that the date of birth recorded in the passport was based on the entries mentioned in documents other than the birth certificate.

Summary: The Regional Passport Office, Pune, put together a special Passport Seva Camp at Maharani Tarabai, Sabhagruh, Collector Office, Kholhapur for applicants from Kolhapur and Sangli districts on November 21 and 22. About 300 applicants were processed at the camp. The camp was inaugurated by Kholhapur MP Dhananjay Mahadik in the presence of Atul M Gotsurve, Regional Passport Officer, Pune and Monaj Kumar Sharma, Superintendent of Police Kholhapur.

Mahadik appreciated the camp and said, "It would be good if more such camps are held in Kolhapur to ease the rush at the Pune Passport Seva Kendra."

Gotsurve stressed that the people should give correct information in their passport form. "If people are staying in Pune, then they should not apply from Kolhapur and Sangli addresses. This leads to adverse police report or rejection of application and imposition of penalty of Rs. 5000 and in some cases, imprisonment up to two years as per the Passport Act 1967."

Summary: From Wednesday, the government will stop considering handwritten passports from Indian citizens. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had given citizens time till November 24 (Tuesday) to get handwritten passports replaced with machine-readable ones (MRPs). Foreign governments may deny a visa or entry to a person travelling on a non-machine readable passport from November 25, a circular from the ministry of external affairs said.

The government has been issuing MRPs since 2001. Those issued before 2001 and particularly those issued during the mid-1990s with a validity of 20 years fall into the non-MRPs. According to an estimate, by October-end, there were approximately 2.50 lakh handwritten passports in circulation across India which would soon become invalid if not re-issued as machine readable passports before November 24.

The government had given details about replacing passports on the website www.passportindia.gov.in. Indian citizens living abroad must visit the website of respective Indian Mission/Post.

Summary: The Regional Passport Office organised a special passport mela for police personnel and their families working under Hyderabad Police Commissionerate at Passport Seva Kendra, Begumpet here on Saturday. Speaking on the occasion, Hyderabad Police Commissioner M Mahender Reddy said a remarkable achievement was made due to the technological revolution with the induction of iPads and other technological gadgets. All field officers utilised a new software called 'verifast' which was very citizen friendly, he said and added that a pre and post verification SMS alert system was also introduced as part of citizen friendly policy.

He said a feedback system was also introduced at CP office involving an independent agency to collect information on the overall approach of the field verification officers during the verification process and suitable remedial measures were being taken depending upon the feedback from the citizens to address the loopholes if any. Hyderabad Regional Passport Officer S Ashwini Sattaru said the main objective of the special mela was to facilitate the police personnel and their family members to obtain passports who were otherwise busy with their day-to-day life.

So far 2,222 applicants registered their names at Passport Verification Cell, Special Branch, for special passport mela. Of the total applicants, about 1,222 applicants were allotted Begumpet PSK for submission of their forms and the rest were assigned to PSK Ameerpet. Y Nagi Reddy, Additional Commissioner of Police, Special Branch, D Prakash Reddy, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North Zone) and others participated.

Summary: Passport applicants in Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Kanpur can now apply for a passport at any of these four passport seva kendras (PSK), according to convenience. The new rule could expedite the process of getting a passport as an applicant can choose the centre with the shortest waiting list for appointments. The Lucknow passport office has the four PSKs under its jurisdiction.

"To make it convenient for applicants, we have extended portability across PSKs," said regional passport officer, Lucknow, RN Rai. Till October this year, UP has issued the largest number of passports in the country though its offices in Lucknow, Bareilly and Ghaziabad districts. The three passport offices together issued 11 lakh passports. The highest among these were from Lucknow with 7.9 lakh passports.

Applicants can get the appointment for the next working day at Gorakhpur, Lucknow and Kanpur PSKs. However, Varanasi PSK has a queue for appointments and is giving appointment on the 12th working day. "Portability can help Varanasi applicants get passports faster," said Rai. The Varanasi PSK generates 975 appointments per day but it will now be provided 150 additional appointments per day to clear its backlog and keep pace with other PSKs.

Besides, with police verification report now received online, a passport goes to the printing queue as soon as the report is received. "This has reduced time taken in issuing the passport. We are issuing passports in average 30 days now," said the official. With the new system, passport office will close down district passport cells. Applicants not at home at te time of scheduled police verification can send an application to the passport office for re-verification.

Summary: Not only has the Passport managed to issue 11.15 lakh passports this year, but has also cleared last year's backlog, said regional Passport Officer R.N. Rai.

Addressing a press conference at the passport office on Friday, Rai said nowadays people did not have to wait for months to get their passports, as most of them received the documents within 30 days. Moreover, online appointment within 24 hours, instead of the 80 days' waiting time that was the norm until the just six months ago, said Rai.

"We have cleared all the pending work in the Passport office, as we issue 11.15 lakh passports this year against 110.86 lakh applications," has said, adding that last year's backlog of cities like Gorakhpur and Kanpur has been cleared and special camps would be organized to bring down the appointment cycle. "At present it takes 12 days to get an appointment in Varanasi. We want to bring that down to just 24 hours, “he said. Rai also claimed that the Lucknow regional Passport office has emerged as the number one Passport Office of the country. Earlier Maharashtra and Kerala used to lead in issuing highest number of passports every year.

Summary: R. Nanthagopal, Collector of Vellore, hands over the appointment receipt to a woman who came to apply for a passport at the e-Seva Centre in Katpadi on Thursday. Hassle-free procedures for online application for passports introduced. The multi-purpose e-Seva centres functioning in various taluk offices in Vellore district have done away with middlemen in passport applications.

Thanks to the hassle-free procedures for online application for passports introduced through these centres from September 21, this has bacecome possible, said R. Nanthagopal, Collector of Vellore district. Talking to newspersons during his inspection of the e-Seva centre in the taluk office here on Thursday, Mr. Nanthagopal said that a resident of Tamil Nadu can apply for a new passport either through the ordinary mode or tatkal mode, and also apply for renewal of an existing passport at the e-Seva centres functioning in the taluk offices.

Once an online application for a new passport is made, an appointment date, time and venue is generated in the online appointment receipt issued to the applicant. The applicant has to present herself / himself at the nearest Passport Seva Kendra assigned to her / him. Bhavani (32) of Kazhinjur said that she had come to submit the online application for a passport for her mother, her 5-month-old child and a 5-year-old son. Her mother Vijayalakshmi had been asked to report at the Passport Seva Kendra in Tambaram for an appointment on November 4.

Online application

The Collector said that a total of 40 persons have so far submitted online applications for passport at the e-Seva centres in Vellore district ever since the introduction of the system of online passport application a month ago. This includes 13 persons who have applied online for passport at the e-Seva centre in the Vellore taluk office and 10 persons in the e-Seva centre in the Katpadi taluk office. The Collector earlier inspected the online passport application process in the Katpadi taluk office.

Necessary documents

According to a release issued by the Collector, an applicant submitting online application for passport/renewal has to submit any one of the following documents as address proof: water tax receipt (previous year's and current year's receipt), electricity receipt, telephone receipt, bank passbook containing the previous one year's transaction, tax assessment order, electors' photo identity card, LPG connection order, residence certificate issued by the employer, family card (with one more document), Aadhar card (one more document should be submitted in case the Aadhar card was obtained within a year), or a registered rental contract document more than one-year-old.

In the case of minor children, the first and last page of the passport of parents should be submitted. A resident of Tamil Nadu can apply for renewal of an existing passport at the e-Seva centres.

Summary: Thanks to many passport melas and "maha-camps" held by the Regional Passport Office in Pune, the passport appointment availability cycle at Passport Seva Kendra in Mundhwa has come down to one working day. This, in turn, has brought down the demand for tatkal service since applications even under the normal category are processed speedily, for no extra fee.

According to Atul Gotsurve, Regional Passport Officer in Pune, the tatkal slots, which used to fill within minutes of opening at noon, remain unfilled till the evening on many days. "It's a good indicator of how passport availability has increased. People are now confident about getting a passport without having to pay extra. About a year ago, one had to wait for at least 20 days to a month to get an appointment under normal slots, forcing many to opt for tatkal service," said Gotsurve.

This, officials at the Regional Passport Office say, is a result of their sustained efforts. The RPO has held 28 to 30 passport camps so far, each having 1,100 to 1,400 slots. It also conducted a camp at Passport Office at Senapati Bapat Road and Maha Camp at Aundh. Prajakta Pachorekar (23), who stays off Kusalkar Road received her passport three days ago. She said she needed her passport within a month as she had to submit the same for her International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

"I was planning to approach an agent, but a friend of mine advised me to undertake the process myself and assured me that I would get it well within a month even if I applied under normal category. I did the same and within 20 days, the passport reached my office. Most of these 20 days were taken by the police verification as they had to verify my temporary as well as permanent addresses," she said.

According to Gotsurve, the reduced passport cycle has also dissuaded many from falling in the trap of touts.

Summary: Passport applicants in Pune rural police's jurisdiction can expect their passports to reach them at least two weeks earlier than before. This week onwards, Pune rural police have implemented the 'police station' model, an online computerised system for direct transfer of verification papers from the passport office to police stations. This will help reduce at least 10-15 days’ time in police verification process, a statement issued by the regional passport office said.

Earlier, police verification papers were sent online from the passport office to the district police headquarters of the Pune rural police, which then sent the papers physically to the 36 police stations under its jurisdiction. This would delay the transfer of papers and, consequently, passport issuance. A special training session was conducted on October 15 for the Pune rural police personnel on the police station model.

Summary: To ensure that those interested in undertaking Haj pilgrimage next year do not come across any last minute tangles, the regional passport office, Dehradun, has issued an advisory for timely renewal of passports. It is learnt that every year, hundreds of individuals in Doon and nearby areas plan to visit Mecca. The guidelines related to the renewal of the passport for the pilgrimage specify that applications of passport holders with less than one year of validation period left will not be considered by the Haj Committee, resulting in cancellation of the religious visit for many.

Vijay Shanker Pandey, regional passport officer, said, "All we want is that no one loses the opportunity due to procedural formalities of renewal of the passport. The advisory is to inform people so that they could get proceedings completed within time." Earlier, last month the union ministry of external affairs in a review meet found that pilgrims mostly unaware of the proper guidelines miss the religious visit as the formalities range from biometrics to police verification and is a time taking process so that no loophole is left.

"I think it is a great initiative by the RPO that they are advising people for the renewal of the passport within time. I couldn't take the pilgrimage last year due to some issues with my passport. But this year, I hope that I will get my passport renewed on time," said Parvez Khan (34), a Doonite. The RPO, Dehradun, has been proactive since last few years. The office organized five passport camps in Kumaon region recently to ensure availability of the passport to thousands who are unable to travel to the state capital given the various reasons including geographical issues.

Summary: Applicants seeking appointments at the Passport Seva Kendra in Mundhwa will have additional 100 slots and another 150 at the Regional Passport Office on Senapati Bapat Road from Thursday onwards. These slots have been added to sustain the daily service capacity of the passport office which had been catering to an additional 350 applicants daily through a passport maha camp at the Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Kaladalan in Aundh.

The Passport Seva Kendra in Mundhwa currently caters to approximately 1,300 applications daily, including 1,100 under normal category, 120 tatkal files and approximately 70 walk-in applicants. Speeding up of the police verification system for passports and reaching out to applicants in other districts coming under the jurisdiction of the regional office (Ahmednagar, Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Solapur city and Solapur rural) through short-duration passport camps in October-November are also in the pipeline, said regional passport officer Atul Gotsurve at the closing ceremony of the Aundh maha camp.

The event was also attended by city MP Anil Shirole, deputy mayor Aba Bagul and Sanjay Patil, deputy commissioner of police (Foreigners Registration Office) who heads the police verification work for passports. "Speeding up and improving the quality of police verification for passports are on my agenda. We are working on upgrading the Pune rural police system into the 'Thana model' which will enable us to send verification files straight to the police station concerned. Currently, the files are sent to them through the district police headquarter in which 7-10 days are wasted," said Gotsurve.

He added that they are working with the police to bring down the processing time for each file to less than the mandated 21 days. "We have told the police to conduct visits to the address given by the applicants rather than calling them to the police station," he said. Deputy commissioner of police Sanjay Patil too stressed on reducing the number of days needed for verification."We want to finish the verification work within 21 days. Some files are pending as we were busy with Ganeshotsav, but we hope to catch up in the next two weeks," he said.

Shirole commended the passport office for their work. said, "I recently visited the Mundhwa PSK as an ordinary applicant and managed to complete all formalities without any glitch. The system is fantastic and the finest example of what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has envisioned - of minimum government and maximum governance." Bagul urged the passport office to help process passport applications of students from municipal schools. "We urge the RPO to help all students of corporation schools secure passports which will enable them to travel abroad. We are willing to provide all logistical support to the passport office for it," he said. * Aundh passport maha camp: From May 1 to September 30 * Applications processed: 34,000 * Total staff strength: 16.

Summary: The Ministry of External Affairs has relaxed the rules for the issue of passport for minor children (0-18 years) in a bid to streamline the application procedure. The need for production of the original passports of the parent(s) has been done away with, and now parent(s) can submit only photo copies of their passports while submitting the applications of their minor children.

In case both parents do not hold valid passports, any of the prescribed acceptable proofs can be submitted, according to Regional Passport Officer N.L.P. Choudary. The presence of both the parents and their consent while submission of their passport application of minor child has been relaxed as follows: if both parents are able to visit the PSK (Passport Seva Kendra), they have to give their consent for passport of their minor child in the form of Annexure-H (on plain paper).

If either parent resides abroad, consent on Annexure-H should be given duly attested by the Indian Mission abroad. If only one parent is able to visit the PSK for any reasons like marital discord or physical unavailability of the other parent for submission of application, he/she (parent submitting application at PSK) has to give consent for passport of minor child in the form of Annexure-G (sworn before the Judicial Magistrate or Executive Magistrate).

Single parents with whom the child is residing needs to submit Annexure-C if the details and whereabouts of the other parent is not known. The single parent has the option of mentioning the name of the other parent or not. The Passport Officer noted that the Ministry had revised the wording of the Annexure - C. G. H. The new annexure will be uploaded on the passport portal shortly.

Summary: Passport seekers have much to cheer for as they can now submit their applications just one day after registering online. Next-day appointments for passports are now available at the ongoing passport camp in Aundh and a seven-day cycle at the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) in Mundhwa. Those submitting their documents online on Friday can secure an appointment under the normal category for August 17 or the next working day, at the passport camp in Aundh and those who want to complete the formalities at the PSK in Mundhwa, can get an appointment for August 21. Appointments under the tatkal category too are now available on next-day basis, as reflected by the appointment availability link on the Passport Seva website.

Regional passport officer Atul Gotsurve credited passport melas and camps organized throughout the year for reduction in the appointment cycle. "The demand-supply gap of appointments was the main reason for the long waiting period earlier. We organized more than 30 passport melas last year. The passport camp in Aundh has been ongoing since May 1, for which staff was specially called in from Kerala. As a result, the number of passports issued by us this year is much more than last year. The number of tatkal-category slots that we offer every day don't even get fully booked now as people are able to secure an appointment quickly under the normal category itself," he said. Gotsurve is confident of bringing down the appointment cycle even at Mundhwa to one day.

Summary: With a view to make the Passport issuance process simpler, more secure and reliable, the regional passport office (RPO) will integrated its Passport Seve Kendra (PSK) with Aadhaar database starting from August 21. An initiative has been taken by the Ministry of External Affairs to digitally integrate Passport issuance procedure with the UID database for validating the Aadhaar number, submitted by the passport applicant, as a Proof of Identity and Proof of Address.

The integration has been successfully piloted at some PSKs across different states in past few weeks. The project is now ready for a pan-India roll-out. With this integration, those applicants who provide their Aadhaar details at the time of filling up the online application form, can expect an instant online verification of Aadhaar details thereby making it easier and convenient for the processing officers to consider his case for granting of passport.

The RPO has advised the applicants to fill up the the Aadhaar number correctly in their application right at the time of filling up of online form. Once the application is submitted and an appointment is taken with PSK, inclusion or changes in Aadhaar details may not be possible at PSK. Thus the benefit of Aadhar integration can be be taken by those who do not provide their Aadhar details at the time of filling applications online and subsequently produce Aadhar Card at PSK.

Summary: Accepting of manual applications for passports has been discontinued and applications should only be made online on the website www.passportindia.gov.in Reacting to reports in the media that the police had arrested a miscreant for allegedly taking money from the students of Visakha Institute of Technology for arranging passports, Passport Officer N.L.P. Choudary said that the Regional Passport Office, Visakhapatnam, has not authorised anyone to contact universities, engineering colleges on its behalf for conducting passport awareness campaigns. He advised all educational institutions and students not to fall prey to such unscrupulous persons, who make false promises of arranging passports.

Educational institutions and students can contact the RPO located at Marripalem VUDA Layout or over the phone No. 0891-2745747; fax: 0891-2745748, email: rpo.vizag@mea.gov.in. Mr. Choudary said that if any educational institution wants a student awareness campaign to be organised on application procedure for passports and other details about passport issuance, they can contact the office directly or over the phone numbers given above.

Summary: No police verification is required for reissue of passports, the government said today. "For reissue of passports, police verification is not required, provided the first passport had been issued on the basis of clear police report, "Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh told Lok Sabha in a written reply. The decision will have a significant impact on applicants facing delay due to mandatory police verification for re-issuance of his or her passport.

As per existing provisions, minors, government servants and senior citizens (65 years and above) are exempted from police verification subject to certain conditions, he said. Singh said there was no proposal under consideration to discontinue 'Tatkaal' system for issuing passports for urgent travel needs. It is a fact that with the overall improvement in delivery of passport services, the incidence of Tatkaal passport is coming down progressively from 11 per cent in 2012-13 to six per cent in 2014-15.

"However, there is no proposal to discontinue Tatkaal system, as it serves the purpose of issuing passports for urgent travel needs, "the minister said. Meanwhile, the Home Ministry is working on a country-wide online police verification project for passports that will cut down the time required for issuing the travel document from a month, at present, to just a week. The project is likely to be launched from Bengaluru in November.

Under the project the head of district police SP or DCP will be given access to databases of National Population Register, Aadhaar and the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) to enable online verification of identity, address and criminal record, if any, of the applicant.

Summary: The passport application and issuance process is getting a major technology upgrade. There are a slew of integrations and applications in the pipeline. Most people agree that getting or renewing a passport today is a relatively less cumbersome process than it was half a decade back (it was a nightmare back then). The form filling is online, and the portal doles out appointment slots to applicants right after they submit their forms. The passport centers themselves have become more organized and give a verdict on your passport status right then. Once approved, citizens can also track the status of their passports online and get updates via SMS. Much of this is thanks to back-end technology.

Passport Seva has always been a relatively tech-savvy department. Their digitization took a concrete form back in 2012 when the passport application process went completely online and the first few Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) went live. Today, India has 77 PSKs. That number will touch 100 before the end of this year. On an average, the passport portal receives a whopping 50,000 applications per day.

The passport application and issuance process is getting a major technology upgrade. There are a slew of integrations and applications in the pipeline. ET met Golok Kumar Simli, Principal Consultant and Head-Technology, Passport Seva, Ministry of External Affairs, to discuss the tech revamp of the Indian Passport. "Passport Seva started getting digitized much before Digital India took off. We have, to quite some extent, realized the Digital India vision. We are aligning with Digital India in three parts- build, connect and deliver services. If you see, Passport seva starts with digital. Our application is the first digital touch with our portal," said Simli.

When the online form was made the only means to apply for a passport, sceptics argued that how will the majority of Indian population, with no access or knowledge of the internet, apply for a passport. The MEA overcame that hurdle by enabling 1.5 lakh Common Service Centers (CSCs) to fill up these forms. "People can file their (passport) applications at any CSC for nominal fees of Rs.100. Earlier travel agents were charging Rs.1000 to just fill the form. Now we have established a government initiated channel and we are taking the middle men out," explains Simli. Every Passport Seva Kendra also has two counters to help the uninitiated, free of cost, in case they walk in.

New tech initiatives

There are a host of new tech projects underway under Simli's direction, and he hopes to complete and implement most of these before this year ends. The most crucial one, already in its pilot stages, is the integration with Aadhar (Unique Identification Authority of India).Integration with the Aadhar database can make verification a much less tedious task for the passport authorities, said Simli. "This integration will help us with establishing identity by verifying even the biometric match- right now we are only doing demographic and facial mapping."

The integration, says Simli has already happened and will be rolled out across the country before 15th. Once it is rolled out, the it will help MEA verify for re-issue passports directly from Aadhar. A customer facing mobile application, where the customers can link their Aadhar numbers to their passports, is also in the works. the other big integration that is underway is with the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) database. That should also be completed by the end of this year, says Simli. "With these two integrations (CCTNS and UIDAI) 90% of our verification process will be taken care of." Simli says the Passport Seva eventually want to reach a point where verification is almost redundant- though that time still might be a few years away.

"See there are three key things we verify while issuing a passport- we verify identity, criminality and citizenship. The first two things we can verify with these integrations. Citizenship verification however, is a big task. We don't have a citizenship database yet," Simli told us. Another key initiative that the passport department is working on is the m-Passport mobile app for police verification officers. As of now, Passport Seva triggers real-time police verification upto the district level. With this app and CCTNS integration, they will be able to trigger real-time verification up to the thana level. "If you see what happens today, the verification call from district to thana level is triggered manually. With this app, that manual step will be taken away. It will speed the verification, and thus the issuance process by 10-12 days," Simli said. This app will be deployed at the field verification level. Police officers will carry an app on their smart phone and fill in the inputs real-time. Today, on an average, police verification for passport takes about 34 days. With this app Simli hopes to bring it down to a maximum of three weeks.

Once it is implemented, Passport Seva also plans to use the digi-locker (a key initiative under the Digital India program) for verifying applicants' documents. Simli also told us that they are advancing the citizen facing mPassport app to allow users to fill up passport forms on their mobile and tablets.

Social Initiation

Citizens already have access to SMS and web based tracking of their passport application, once they have filed it. However, the tracking can end up being a frustrating affair, especially if you see your passport stuck at a level for days and are unable to do anything about it. To solve grievances more actively, Simili says Passport Seva is using social media very actively. "We are addressing grievances very promptly via social media- we have opened Facebook and twitter accounts for all our Regional Passport Officers, including us- , our Joint Secretary, Chief Passport Officer etc. Social media feeds are now a part of system response." The MEA minister, Sushma Swaraj, is also quite active on her Twitter handle.

Simili says that social media activism has opened a lot of avenues for government departments. "Citizens are also pointing out loopholes in the system. For instance, someone recently pointed out to us that once you select Regional Passport Office while filling the online form- you cannot change it. We went ahead and rectified that. We were missing real inputs earlier. Now, if we just filter out the noise- we can harness some great ideas from social media."

Hi-tech Future

It is interesting to see the kid of analytics that the Passport Seva is doing over the massive data residing with it. "We are doing big data analytics in a significant manner. We analyse data state wise, district wise and do things like capacity analysis, male-female ratio, education analysis, normal vs tatkal, growth in number of applications etc," Simli revealed. Simli also has some far-fetched but realistic dreams for the Indian Passport. Like putting RFID chips on the last page of the passport so it will carry citizens' biometric and demographic identities. An implementation like that will also make things like an immigration e-gate (where Indian citizens can enter the country through an automated gate without manual intervention) a possibility.

Summary: Exemption to be given to them from getting appointments with officials. Instead of rushing to passport authorities in the last minute seeking passports, students have been advised to apply for passports in advance. In the recent past, a number of students approached the passport office here for passports, citing urgent reasons such as higher studies and employment opportunities. In most of the cases, the officials could not oblige due to various administrative reasons. Hence, the authorities have started visiting educational institutions across the region to create awareness of the procedures involved in getting a passport, which may help the students avoid last minute rush.

Speaking at The American College here on Wednesday, Passport Officer (Madurai Region) S. Maniswararaja said that applicants could visit the two Passport Seva Kendras - at Kochadai in Madurai and in Tirunelveli - after online registration. While it took several days for getting appointment in big cities such as Chennai and Kolkatta, the PSKs in the region granted appointments at the shortest possible time. For instance, an applicant who registered online on Monday would get an appointment on Tuesday or the next working day, he noted.

After explaining in detail the steps involved in applying for a fresh passport and the documents to be furnished such as birth certificate and address proof, he cautioned about the consequences of submitting fake documents and the punishment as per the Indian Passports Act.

Special cases

To ensure swift processing for college students, the passport officials would organise exclusive walk-in interviews as special cases, if the number of applicants was high. "They need not register online and can visit the office. We can process the applications," he said, adding educational institutions were also welcome to organise awareness programmes on their campuses in which the passport officials would participate.

Answering questions from the students, Mr. Maniswararaja said that birth certificate and proper proof of address were essential. Minor changes in birth certificates were admissible. Photographs were not required for obtaining passports as the PSK staff would capture the picture of the applicants at the time of processing their applications.

The fee for obtaining a passport in the normal course was Rs. 1,500. Any applicant born after January 26, 1989 had to produce the birth certificate. If an applicant was born in a house, a certificate from the VAO concerned was required, he noted. He also clarified doubts about two categories of passport - ECR (Emigration Check Required) and ECNR (Emigration Check Not Required). If a person had lost the passport issued in the past, he/she should disclose the details, he stressed.

Summary: Getting a passport is a mammoth task for many and sometimes takes up to two months to get a new one. But soon you will be able to get new passport at your home in just 10 working days. Ministry of external affairs (MEA) is developing an application which will reduce the time taken by police for verification by up to three times. Besides reducing the wait, the regional passport offices (RPO) will also be able to speed up the process and issue more passports in one year once the application comes into effect.

The consular passport and visa (CPV) division of MEA is developing an application 'mPassport Police' which will enable the police to complete the verification process in just seven days. "Under this project, a smart phone or a tablet will be provided to police officials, wherein they will download this app, visit the home of applicant and verify the papers on the spot. After the verification is done, the police officials will send the report real-time through the device itself which will be connected to main servers," said Z A Khan, regional passport officer, Ahmedabad.

The application is expected to be rolled out in two months and initially will be implemented at all major regional passport offices (RPOs) including Ahmedabad. Currently the police in Gujarat takes 21 days on an average to verify the applicant's papers which will be reduced to just 7 once the application is in use. "In the current scenario, the verification process by police is done manually which is why it takes a lot of time," added Khan.

However, the authorities at RPO Ahmedabad are skeptical if this project will be able to take off in Gujarat as law and order are state subject. And hence it will depend on the government to implement in the state. More than five lakh passports are issued every year from Ahmedabad RPO which covers 28 districts of Gujarat and Diu and has four Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs).

On the other hand, the home ministry is working on a project which will allow all SP-level police officers access to databases such as National Population Register, Aadhaar and Electoral Photo ID Card via the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) to enable online verification of the identity, address and criminal record, if any, of the passport applicant. Hyderabad police had developed indigenous software on the same lines for verification which helped them to reduce the process's duration from 48 days to eight.

Summary: Within a year, the passport issuance process at the Pune passport office has seen a complete turnaround. From a complex process which evoked anxiety among passport aspirants, the process has now become much quicker and almost seamless. This was recognised by the Ministry of External Affairs, which accorded the Special Recognition Award to the Pune Regional Passport Office earlier this week.

Concerted efforts, as officials put it, have manifested in drastic shortening of waiting period for an appointment of a passport applicant. In April 2014, the appointment availability cycle was 52 days. Meaning, if an applicant tries to book an appointment at the passport office today, he would get a date 52 days later. This cycle has now come down to 21 days. For an appointment seeker at the Aundh Passport Camp, it's just 13 days.

"Given the increasing demand for passports in Pune and neighbouring districts, the passport application cycle should actually have become longer. However, efforts taken by us at multiple levels has made it shorter. We undertook frequent passport camps - about 28 to 30 so far - each having 1100 to 1400 slots. This didn't allow the cycle to become longer. On the other hand, when we started another camp at Passport Office at Senapati Bapat Road and ongoing Maha Camp at Aundh, the cycle reduced sharply. We are hoping it will shorten further," said Atul Gotsurve, the Regional Passport Officer. Several people who recently obtained a passport from the Pune office - including a few who employed a middleman - told Newsline that they felt the process was easy, transparent and - most importantly - quick.

Talking about his experience of getting his passport re-issued, Saibal Sen, a city-based businessman, said, "The procedure was super fast. I am surprised at the efficiency and speed and system. This is the best government office I have visited in India. I had my interview on June 15 and received my passport by post at my residence on June 17, in barely 48 hours. Can you believe it?"

Mrunalini Patil, 23, an engineer, needed a passport urgently as she needed to submit passport details while joining her first job. She decided to hire a 'passport agent' as she didn't want to 'take a chance'. "A friend advised me to hire a tout as he would resolve documentary issues and quicken the process. I took the advice. I got the passport within 12 days. However, I regret hiring a tout because he did nothing. There was no stage in the process where he could have intervened.

The process is monitored electronically and if you have the required documents, you get the passport without any trouble," said Patil. The passport office on Senapati Bapat Road and Passport Seva Kendra at Mundhwa have undergone a complete transformation with installation of state-of-the art facilities including flat screen television sets, cushioned chairs, a library and bottled water dispensers.

Citizens, however, pointed out some areas which had scope for improvement, such as 'better etiquettes' of security personnel at the entrance, more seats at the waiting area and deployment of more persons at the exit counter. "I was through with all the counters within 30 minutes but the exit counter took me another 30 minutes because there was a queue. Only one counter was manned. The behaviour of the security personnel could have been better," said Sen.

Summary: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today complimented the passport department in the ministry for significantly improving its services across the country in the past one year. Addressing passport officers on the third Passport Seva Divas, she said not a single day passes when she does not get to hear appreciation for the passport services. Referring to her call to the passport officers to improve functioning on June 26 last year, she said delay in issuance of passport has become a thing of the past and people are really happy with the services. "Not a single day passes when I don't get to hear some appreciation for you in the form of tweets on my handle," she said. Swaraj also referred to tweets by actors Deepika Padukone and Preity Zinta, athlete Anju Bobby George and Indian cricket captain M S Dhoni appreciating the passport services. Swaraj also launched "mPassport", a police verification mobile app.

Summary: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday felicitated passport issuing officers here and abroad on the occasion of Passport. Seva Divas and asked them to take more effective steps to make the system worthy of emulation. The day signifies the enactment of the Passports Act, 1967, and its enabling provisions of passport issuance.

Noting that the past one year has been noteworthy in many respects, she said the government is committed to the principle of 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance' and delivering services to citizens in a convenient, accountable and transparent manner. She added that the government is committed to putting in place more "inclusive and robust mechanisms" to achieve these objectives.

"Let us rededicate ourselves, on this important day, to take more effective steps with renewed vigour to make our passport issuance system worthy of emulation," she said in her message. Swaraj said the Ministry of External Affairs and its subordinate office, the Central Passport Organization have reason to celebrate as well as to mark the event with renewed commitment to provide passport services in a timely, assured and efficient manner.

Summary: The ministry of External affairs has decided to accept a state government of Union government gazette notification for name change while submitting the passport application form, a circular issued by the ministry said. According to the notification, those who don't have an official gazette notification can submit Annexure E (notarized affidavit) and clippings of two newspaper advertisements announcing the name change. The standard proforma for the annexure can be downloaded from the Passport Seva Website, the circular added.

Summary: A vast majority of passport applicants staying in rented accommodations can now heave a sigh of relief. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has decided to accept registered rental agreements as a valid address proof even if it is for less than one year. Since last year MEA had been accepting registered rental agreement as address proof only if it was for a period of more than one year for passport applications.

Pune regional passport officer Atul Gotsurve said, "It has come to the notice of the MEA that a number of applicants could not submit their applications as the validity period of their registered rent agreements was less than a year. To redress the hardship faced by the applicants and in the public interest, MEA has, with immediate effect, decided that registered rent agreement executed in favour of the tenant by the landlord will be accepted as a valid document as proof of address at the time of submission of passport application even if it is less than one year."

According to officials, earlier, only registered rent agreement (not notarised but registered at sub registrar office) valid for one year and above was accepted as valid address proof for passport application.

Pune (and Bengaluru) has a large number of IT professionals and students who stay here on rent. Except for the rent agreement they cannot produce any other valid documents as address proof while applying for passports. Often the agreement is for just 11 months. "I appreciate this initiative and I think this will help especially those who shift cities frequently on work. After online police verification another great step my MEA!" said Pavan Raj, an engineer working with an MNC.

ANY OF THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS CAN BE SHOWN EVEN IF THEIR VALIDITY IS FOR LESS THAN A YEAR:

* Water Bill * Telephone (landline or postpaid mobile bill) * Electricity bill * lncome Tax Assessment Order * Election Commission Photo ID card * Proof of gas connection * Certificate from employer of reputed company on letterhead * Souse's valid passport copy (First and last page including family details provided the applicant's present address matches the address mentioned on the spouse's passport) * Parent's valid passport copy in case of minors (first and last page) * Aadhaar Card n Photo passbook of running bank account.

Summary: Passport verification now online. Instead of hard copies of documents, police stations will send online reports to CP's office, reducing procedure by about five days. The online passport verification report (PVR) is all set to go fully digital as local police stations will now send reports online instead of the present system of sending hard copies of verified documents to the police commissioner's office.

Pune is the first city to conduct this experiment, which will save about five days in the whole process. Mirror had reported on it on November 29, 2014, in a story titled, 'Cops to go full digital with passports.' According to suggestions by the police, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which is operating the project, has made some changes in the software to cut time taken in sending and uploading hard copies.

Pune regional passport officer Atul Gotsurve told Mirror, "This will help to reduce the time taken for police verification." DCP (foreigner's registration office and special branch II) Sanjay Patil, who is also nodal officer for PVR, said, "We have been in touch with TCS and the passport office for the last eight months. We are now in the process of issuing tenders for acquiring the gadgets necessary for digital signatures and uploading documents."

The Pune city police handle more than 15,000 passport applications every month and have adopted the district police headquarters model for speedy disposal of PVRs. In this model, passport applications received by the Passport Seva Kendra are transferred electronically to the police headquarters of an applicant's city of residence, then segregated and moved through the online route to the concerned police stations. After on-ground verification of the furnished particulars, the PVR is sent back to police headquarters and forwarded to the Regional Passport Office (RPO) for further processing. In Pune city, DCP (FRO) forwards the PVR to the RPO with his recommendation on whether the passport should be issued or not. This process must be completed within 21 days.

According to the police, over 500 applications are sent to the 39 police stations every day. "At present, till we receive hard copies of documents, we cannot be sure which application has been verified. Therefore, we suggested that in the online system, there should be an option to view details of applicants whose PVRs have been completed by local police, as also a dashboard to show police station-wise details of completed PVRs," Patil added.

"The equipment will help. The applicant and inspector in-charge can sign digitally and we can upload every document at the PS itself. At present, we send documents to the commissioner's office, where they are scanned and uploaded on the website," said a policeman engaged in verification work. We have been in touch with TCS and the passport office for the last eight months. We are now in the process of issuing tenders for acquiring the gadgets necessary for digital signatures and uploading documents.

Summary: Passport Seva Kendras, in the city has achieved a unique distinction of receiving three ISO certifications. An official release from the Regional Passport Officer said that a team of auditors from Standardization Testing and Quality Certification Services, ministry of communications and information technology, Government of India conducted the audit of information security management system against the requirements for ISO certifications on April 9 and 10 this year. Apart from the main office in Rayala towers on Anna Salai, audit was also conducted data recovery centre and data centre, located in Taramani.

These certificates are valid for three years and are a testimony to passport office for providing superior service with focus on implementation of best practices.

Summary: The laborious paperwork involved in the application process for a passport is now made easier for orphaned and abandoned children. Along with the compulsory birth certificate document, a Matriculation Certificate issued by an educational institution and a Bonafide certificate from the head of the Childcare/Orphanage will now do. Majors born before January 26, 1989, can categorically submit their date of birth and an affidavit sworn before an Executive or Judicial Magistrate, to the Passport Office. Children born after the earmarked date though cannot procure the same as precise DOB cannot be ascertained. Shri Muktesh Pardeshi, Joint Secretary (PSP) and Chief Passport Officer, on Tuesday announced that Government Servants and PSU/Autonomous Body employees have the option of applying for passport with a No objection Certificate (NOC), Identity Certificate or the newly introduced 'Prior Intimation letter' to the controlling authority before submitting their passport application forms. All the three documents, will be valid for a period of six months.

Three new ISO certifications were awarded to Passport Seva Project (PSP) for achieving the unique distinction of becoming the first Mission Mode Project under National e-Governance Plan of Government of India, at at the Passport Seva Kendra. The certifications, which are valid till May 2018, were awarded in light of successful implementation of e-Governance practices.

Summary: A digital makeover

Passport Seva Project : One of India's greatest digital successes, Passport Seva Project (PSP) was started with the aim to "deliver all passport-related services to the citizens in a timely, transparent, more accessible, reliable manner and in a comfortable environment through streamlined processes and committed, trained and motivated workforce."

This ambitious e-governance initiative is part of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) that aims to improve the delivery of public services. It is being executed with the Ministry of External Affairs in public-private partnership with an IT firm. Citizens can submit their application online and visit the nearest Passport Seva Kendra with prior appointment. This way they can save time by avoiding queues. The subsequent process too is very streamlined and secure as citizens have access to improved amenities, state-of-the-art infrastructure and a helpdesk.

Summary: The people of Sikkim will no longer have to travel to Kolkata for any passport related work. The State will have its own Passport Seva Kendra to cater to the people of Sikkim. The opening remarks were made by RPO Kolkata Ms. Geetika Srivastava.

Summary: The Passport Office here will offer allow students to do internship at the facility as part of its attempts to be more people-friendly. Graduates in any discipline with good academic record may apply for the internship, introduced under the title Passport Seva Mitra. Passport Officer P. Ramakrishnan said here on Tuesday that internship up to eight weeks would expose the students not only to e-governance, but to citizen centricity and service orientation. "It will give them a chance to learn what passport processing is all about," he said. However, the interns will get no stipend. They can choose their internship at any of the 81 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) and 37 passport offices across the country, including the one here.

Mr. Ramakrishnan said that the candidates could apply either directly or online for the internship programme beginning on June 8. He said no employment would be offered after successful completion of the internship. "But they will get certificates from the Ministry of External Affairs," he said.

Fast processing

Mr. Ramakrishnan said that the Malappuram Passport Office achieved the rare distinction of reducing the waiting period between online applications and processing to one day. "You apply online today and you get an appointment for submitting the documents the next day," he said. "We can now offer the date of the applicant's choice for appointment. We achieved this through the special clearance melas held on Saturdays," he said.

The Passport Officer said that the Aadhaar number of the applicants would soon be linked with the passport. "Even though it is not mandatory now, linking of the Aadhaar will tremendously improve the efficiency of passport processing," he said. For minor changes in names, newspaper advertisements are no longer needed for passport. "An affidavit alone will do," Mr. Ramakrishnan said.

The PSK here achieved no-pendency landmark in its fifth year after beginning operations in 2010. When 2.5 crore passports were processed all over the country in the last five years, the Malappuram PSK alone processed 10 lakh passports.

Summary: A new 'prior intimation' feature introduced by the ministry of external affairs for government servants and public sector undertakings autonomous body employees seeking passports is expected to simplify the procedure for them. The prior intimation letter will benefit thousands of government employees who find it difficult to obtain identity certificates no-objection certificates from their departments, a statement issued by the ministry said.

The letter will enable the applicant to inform his/her controlling or administrative authority (employer) regarding the submission of the passport application.The passport-seeker can submit the letter in the format of annexure `N'. After the applicant submits the passport application, the copy of this prior intimation will be sent to his/her employer. In case the employer has any objection regarding issuance of passport to that person, they can convey the details to the regional passport officer concerned. The final decision, however, will be taken by the passport issuing authority concerned, the statement said.

Atul Gotsurve, Pune's regional passport officer, said, “Getting a no-objection certificate from their headquarters is a challenge for many government employees, especially those posted in far flung areas, away from the headquarters. This new system will eliminate the need to obtain the certificate. Merely submitting the prior information letter will allow them to take their passport application forward.

If the applicant submits the letter, the passport will be issued on the basis of pre-police verification. However, the provisions of police verification will remain applicable in reissue cases. While the revised provisions deal only with passport issuance, the requirement for government employees to obtain prior information from their department ministry to travel abroad as per conduct rules will remain unchanged, as per the instructions issued by the department of personnel and training and respective authorities, the statement clarified.

Summary: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has decided to realign the districts between passport offices at Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad following the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh. A MEA release stated that the districts of Guntur and Krishna in addition to Yanam Union Territory of Puducherry have been realigned and mapped to the passport office at Visakhapatnam.

Passport applicants from Guntur, Krishna and Yanam can choose either the Passport Seva Kendra (PSKs) at Vijayawada or Visakhapatnam. The Visakhapatnam Passport Office would cover the districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Yanam. Prakasam, Nellore, Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool and Anantapur districts of Andhra Pradesh would continue to be under PSK Tirupati or PSKs in Hyderabad under the Regional Passport Officer until further orders.

Adilabad, Karimnagar, Medak, Nizamabad, Warangal, Ranga Reddy, Khammam, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda of Telangana state would continue to be under PSKs in Hyderabad.

Summary: A set of three identity documents, at least one of them verifiable over the Internet, would spare applicants for a Tatkal passport the hassle of getting a verification certificate from "a competent authority", according to a new proposal. An Aadhar card, along with two identity documents from a list of 16 mentioned in the official website of the Passport Seva portal, would suffice to support a Tatkal application if the person fails to procure a verification certificate, the external affairs ministry has recommended.

Finding an official authorised to vouch for an applicant's credentials is the toughest part of applying for a Tatkal passport, more so after the passport office blacklisted several bureaucrats for allegedly issuing false verification certificates. The first step towards making the Tatkal passport procedure easier yet foolproof is a pilot project launched in Delhi last month to link Aadhar data with the Passport Seva system. Six more regional passport offices across India - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Vizag and Ranchi - will join the network on Monday, enabling passport officials to check a person's Aadhar details online.

Sources in the MEA said the regional passport office in Calcutta would get access to the Aadhar database in a month or two. "Integration of the Aadhar database with the Passport Seva system would have multiple benefits. We will be able to verify the credentials of an applicant online through Aadhar and two other identity documents matching those mentioned in the list of 16. Once that happens, we don't need the Annexure F (the format for a verification certificate) for a Tatkal application," said a senior official of the ministry.

Data regarding other identity documents such as a voter ID would be made available to passport officials digitally, enabling quick verification of Tatkal passport applications. EPIC (elector's photo identity card) data can currently be verified on the Election Commission of India's website but it needs to be made available to passport officials over a protected network for valid verification. "More the number of Internet-verifiable documents, greater the authenticity of the applicant's information. It also reduces the chances of forgery," the official said.

Identity cards of central and state government employees, SC/ST/OBC certificates and property documents are some of the other documents mentioned in the list of 16. The ministry of external affairs had previously tried to replace the verification certificate with a bunch of identity documents but the plan was aborted after multiple cases of forgery were reported by the regional passport offices.

Annexure F is currently mandatory to back up a Tatkal application although the official website www.passportindia.gov.in mentions that "any three documents" from a list of 16 can be presented in lieu of a verification certificate. Many applicants are confused by the information in the website. "It is clearly mentioned that three identity documents can replace Annexure F for a Tatkal application. I followed the instructions, took the necessary documents along to appear for my interview at the Passport Seva Kendra, only to be told that Annexure F was mandatory. When I asked why they had provided false information, the official said the website was being maintained centrally," a Calcuttan complained.

An official in the passport wing of the MEA pleaded helplessness. "The previous initiative to make the Tatkal passport procedure easier was never called off officially, which is why the information on the website hasn't been altered either." The official said Internet-verifiable identity documents would remove any doubt passport officials might have about a Tatkal application.

Faster way to a Tatkaal Passport

EPIC( elector's photo identity card) data can currently be verified on the Election Commission of India's website but its needs to be made available to passport official over a protected network for valid verification. "More the number of Internet-verifiable documents, greater the authenticity of the applicant's information. It also reduces the chances of forgery" the official said.

Identity cards of central and state government employee, SC/ST/OBC certificates and property documents are some of the other documents mentioned in the list of 16. The ministry of external affairs had previously tried to replace the verification certificates with a bunch of Identity documents but the plan was aborted after multiple cases of forgery were reported by the Regional Passport Offices.

Annexure F is currently mandatory to back up a Tatkal application although the official website www.passportindia.gov.in mentions that "any three documents" from a list of 16 can be presented in lieu of a verification certificate. Many applicants are confused by the information in the website. "It is clearly mentioned that three identity documents can replace Annexure F for a Tatkal application. I followed the instructions, took the necessary documents along to appear for my interview at the Passport Seva Kendra, only to be told that Annexure F was mandatory. When I asked why they had provided false information, the officials said the website was being maintained centrally" a Calcuttan complained.

An official in the passport wing of the MEA pleaded helplessness. "The previous initiative to make the Tatkal passport procedure easier was never procedure easier was never called off officially, which is why the information on the website hasn't been altered either." The official said Internet verifiable identity documents would help clear any doubt passport officials might have Tatkal application.

Summary: The inter-linking of Aadhaar numbers with the passport issuance process is set to become a reality. The connectivity is currently being tested by the ministry of external affairs at the Regional Passport Office in Delhi and is expected to be gradually extended to the entire country. Once in place, the new system will allow passport issuing authorities to cross check particulars furnished by an applicant with those registered in the Aadhaar database, including the biometric imprint. The ministry hopes that this added layer of cross verification will add value to the process of authenticating the identity of citizens for issuance of passports. Officials, however, clarified that citizens who are yet to get the Aadhaar card will not be denied a passport. The inter-linking is just a second layer of security check, officials explained.

The trial, underway at a couple of Passport Seva Kendras in the jurisdiction of the regional passport office of Delhi since the first week of April, is expected to conclude in the next couple of days. According to senior ministry officials, the system has been working satisfactorily, barring minor teething troubles. The ministry hopes to close all gaps before rolling out this upgrade at all its 37 passport offices across the country .

Detailing the process, Anil Kumar Sobti, director of the passport division, told TOI, "In a fully operational system, once an applicant provides his biometric imprint for the passport, the system will scan the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) server for its match. The applicant's profile registered in the Aadhaar system will be authenticated with the particu lars furnished by the applicant sitting in the PSK for his passport, including his face and other details".

According to initial reports, the connectivity is quick and allows cross verification in a timely manner. However, despite the cross verification of credentials, no change is currently expected in the process of police verification which is carried out prior to issuance of the passport .Explaining its expected positioning, Sobti said, "The Aadhaar card will only make the authentication more reliable. As of now, there are no plans of doing away with the police verification for the issuance of the passport. In fact, the police verification will help to verify other particulars of the applicant, including his Indian citizenship and criminal antecedents. The ministry may consider changing this system if and when the passports office gets linked to the database of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS)".

Joint secretary in the ministry and chief passport officer Muktesh K Pardeshi clarified that Aadhaar will not be compulsory for securing a passport. "If the applicant furnishes an Aadhaar card along with even one other identification proof, and the details recorded in both are identical, then the confidence level of the passport issuing authority goes up automatically," he said. Confirming the ongoing testing, Aman Puri, Delhi's regional passport officer, said, "All PSKs in Delhi are equipped with the necessary infrastructure for the new system. The trial is being conducted by the technical team of the ministry . The system will be officially rolled out not just in Delhi, but all other RPOs, once officials are satisfied with the test results".

Summary: The two-day special camp organised by the Regional Passport Office, Madurai at the Collectorate here to provide passports to the applicants at their 'doorsteps' received good response with the officials processing 480 applications in two days on April 25 and 26. Though the camp was open to only the first 300 online registered applicants, the passport officers processed the applications of 180 more applicants, mostly senior citizens and students, thanks to the high speed internet facilities arranged by the district administration.

"The response was very good and senior citizens who were undertaking pilgrimage to Haj and Umrah were extremely happy about the special camp," S. Maniswararaja, Regional Passport Officer told The Hindu . In the first such camp held in Nagercoil, they had processed only 200 applications in two days and it was more than double here, thanks to the overwhelming response from the passport seekers, he said.

Those who applied for renewal would be issued with the passports in another three days and fresh passport applicants after police verification, he said. More applications were processed in the camp as they had the facility to pay the fee online, he added. Mr. Maniswararaja said the workshop organised for the benefit of those seeking employment in foreign countries was also well attended. The customs officials and "Meetpu," a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) cautioned those seeking employment abroad against labour exploitation and enlightened them on other issues, he said.

"As people from villages go abroad without proper visas and get exploited, we are planning to hold such awareness camps in village panchayats," the Passport Officer said. Meanwhile, Collector K. Nanthakumar launched the service of applying for passports in the Common e-service Centre (CSC) run by the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Limited on Monday. Mr Maniswararaja was present on the occasion, an official release said.

Summary: There was a time when those seeking an Indian Passport had to wait long hours in serpentine queues at Passport Bhavan, Panaji. Many even had to make several trips. All this is now a thing of the past. The procedure has been streamlined to such an extent that there's no inconvenience to the general public. Even registration and seeking an appointment are online, so, one barely sees a crowd. The streamlining and increase in efficiency means passport seekers can get their passports within a minimum period by post. The office has shown efficiency even though it has to also handle cases of cancellation for those who seek to possess the Portuguese passport. Much of the credit for the efficient working goes to passport officer Agnelo Fernandes. It seems the only thing people miss is a TV set with Cable connection in the waiting lounge. But with people spending so little time here this deficiency is hardly noticed.

Summary: The wait for that first step to get your hands on the all-important blue documents just got a whole lot shorter in the State. Passport applicants can now avail themselves of an appointment anywhere between a day and five days, depending on the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK). This is a drastic reduction in the waiting period from an average time of 45 days (in the Lalbagh PSK) during late- October last year.

For those applying for an appointment under the Mangaluru PSK, the appointment is just one working day away (as on Tuesday) for the PSKs in Hubballi and Marathalli, Bengaluru, the waiting period is three working period is three working days, while those getting appointments in the Lalbagh PSK here will have to wait for five working days.

Regional Passport Officer P.S. Karthigeyan told The Hindu that the Lalbagh PSK had seen the waiting period peak up to 51 days during October - November 2014. In Mangaluru too, people had to wait for over 40 days. "Since then, the waiting period has been coming down gradually." he said.

Summary: With the opening of the Passport Seva Kendra office here on Tuesday, Manipur has been included in the Passport Seva Kendra Map of the country. The office of the Passport Seva Kendra at the Old Assembly Complex in Imphal was inaugurated by Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam, Lok Sabha MP Thangso Baite, Rajya Sabha MP Abdul Salam, Chief Secretary PC Lawmkunga and officials from the Union Ministry of External Affairs.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister appreciated the initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs for opening a Passport Seva Kendra in Imphal. 'This will help the people of Manipur to have the opportunity to apply their passports here in Imphal, instead of going to Guwahati.' Urging the Union Ministry of External Affairs officials to speed up the process to open a 'Visa on Arrival' facility in Manipur, Ibobi informed that all the equipment and infrastructure for the 'Visa on Arrival' facility are already present at the Imphal International Airport and Moreh, a commercial town bordering Myanmar.

He added that Manipur is now one of the major emerging destinations of South Asia. Many tourists from ASEAN countries want to visit Manipur. Once the 'Visa on Arrival' facility comes up in the State the inflow of foreign tourists will increase. Gaikhangam said that the opening of the Passport Seva Kendra in Imphal means the State is now closer to the rest of the world. This initiative is a much awaited dream come true for the people of Manipur.

In his keynote-cum-welcome address in the inaugural function, Joint Secretary of Central Passport Organisation Muktesh K Pradeshi informed that similar Passport Seva Kendras will also be opened in Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim soon. He said around 85,000 individuals in the North-east are holding passports. The number will cross one lakh within a few months. He added that if the police verification process is improved in the State, the passport can be obtained within a month from the date of submitting the application. Regional Passport Officer of Guwahati T Ajungla Jamir offered the vote of thanks in the day's function which was attended by Ministers and MLAs of the State.

Summary: A gazette notification issued on March 16 withdraws the facility, requiring them to obtain the passport like any other citizen with effect from June 1. No reason is given except citing "public interest" in the notification for withdrawing the facility that was granted in view of the functional requirement of a seamen's foreign travels. Members of the crew and tindals of sailing vessels were so far exempted from the mandatory requirement of a passport on the condition that they hold identity card or vessel has permit under the Sailing Vessels (members of crew) Rules, 1967 under a notification issued on September 25, 1968.Those already on the sea may face problem if they do not secure the passports by May end, though the Foreign Ministry said all passport issuing authorities in India and abroad have been told to extend full support in expeditious issuance of passports to such applicants. All Indian missions abroad are empowered to issue the passports and hence Indian seamen of any vessel landing at a port can rush to these missions to get the passport made. Since many seamen may not be well-versed with English, the notification has been also issued in Urdu, Tamil and Malayalam languages.

Summary: Foreign nationals adopting Indian children can look forward to a less traumatic experience of taking home a child, with the foreign ministry streamlining the passport issuance guidelines. The ministry will no longer insist on a separate birth certificate to issue a passport to an adopted child. The court order, which is necessary for adoption, will suffice as proof of birth date.

The implication of this order for prospective parents is significant. Instead of running from pillar to post to obtain a birth certificate, specially for orphans and abandoned children, they can now get an Indian passport for their adopted children based only on the court order. Despite being a member of the Hague Convention, there were some rules that were making things interminably long and difficult for people wanting to take home children from India.

Muktesh Pardeshi, chief passport officer, told TOI, “While our systems have become much better, we found that it was not serving orphans and abandoned children effectively.“ For interested parents, the route to adoption was tricky , because the process demanded a court order, a “no-objection certificate“ from Central Adoption Resource Authority , the nodal agency in the Indian government, and a birth certificate.

Summary: Over 10 million Indian passport applicants a year may soon have to wait less for the cumbersome and opaque police verification those currently takes two-and-a-half months on an average in Bihar - aided by a combination of texts, tablets and Twitter. India's passport office is readying a menagerie of manual and technology-driven fixes aimed at whittling down the delays, especially in states like Bihar, Bengal and Assam that rank among the worst laggards, by handing applicants keys tools to pressure police officials.

Applicants will receive computer-generated text messages with details, including the mobile number, of the policemen handling their verification the moment their applications reach the local police department, allowing them to schedule visits by the officer that are mutually convenient. Officers in charge of verifying applications will be handed tablets where they can feed in clearances on the spot after their visits, which in turn will be received at passport offices that process the actual passports.

Every regional passport office (RPO) chief will need to create a Twitter account and answer complaints in real-time, monitored by Ramachandran Swaminathan, special secretary in charge of consular, passport and visa-related issues at the foreign office. "We've never tried something like this before, but we believe this could really cut down the wait for people, especially in states like Bengal," India's chief passport officer, Muktesh Pardeshi, told The Telegraph. "Applicants won't need to run around passport offices or their police station - and they can press the police officer instead of the policeman harassing them."

Nationally, the police take 40 days to verify a passport application on an average - down from 51 days in 2013 - but the figure leaps to 71 for Bihar, and a whopping 295 days for Assam, an internal study conducted by the central passport office recently shows. Bengal (90 days) and Uttar Pradesh (57 days), traditionally lampooned for relatively poor governance, boast of records no better.

Neelesh Kumar (42) of Patna had to wait 142 days just for the police verification on a passport application he had turned in early 2012. On two occasions, the local police station refused to even tell him the name of the officer assigned for his verification. When he finally met the officer who was to verify his background and residential details, the policeman repeatedly put off a visit, and hinted - though he never explicitly asked for one - that he wanted a bribe.

"It was only when the officer was transferred from that police station for some other reason that my application progressed," Neelesh recalled, speaking on the telephone from Patna. That's the kind of running around applicants may find themselves saved from, if the measures the passport office is fine-tuning work as they are expected to. A text message, as soon as an application reaches the local police department, will alert the applicant that he or she can pursue verification. The officer's telephone number will allow the applicant to directly dial the policeman and fix a time for the cop's visit - avoiding the familiar story of officers claiming they came home but found no one there.

The second rung of the new bouquet of measures is borrowed from Secundarabad, Hyderabad's tech-savvy twin city, where officers for the past few months have visited homes with tablets that allow them to update approvals on the spot. Officially, people can trace the status of their applications online - but the updates they see are often outdated because officers take days or even weeks to type in approvals into their database, before forwarding the approval back to the RPO.

In Secundarabad city, police armed with the tablets take less than a week on an average to verify passport applications - and they update the status on the move. The final layer is already off the ground - over the past few days, Swaminathan surveyed complaints on Twitter, congratulated efficient regional passport officers, but also tried to streamline the mechanism to use the micro-blogging platform to respond to grievances.

On March 2, Jeevan Warker tweeted details of his mother's passport application to P.S. Kartigeyan, the RPO in Bangalore. The police had conducted a physical verification on March 1, Warker said, but online the status still suggested the verification was pending. Kartigeyan responded in two days, and after a week, tweeted to Warker alerting him that his passport had gone for printing. "Well done Kartigeyan," came the prompt pat from Swaminathan. On other occasions, he has gently nudged RPOs on Twitter to respond promptly.

The measures are a part of India's efforts to bridge a gap between spiralling growth in demand for passports on the one hand, and the experiences of many applicants that have only shown a marginal improvement over the past few years. In 2014, over 10 million Indians applied for - and received - passports, placing the country behind just China and the US in its tally of annual passports issued. Driving the growth are Bihar, which witnessed a 60 per cent increase in passport applications in 2014, and Uttar Pradesh, where 41 per cent more people applied for passports last year, than in 2013. But long waiting times for police verification can at least partially offset efforts to keep this growth up. And even with the new measures in the pipeline, Pardeshi and his team - who in January this year won the government's award for its department best using IT for public services - know they cannot completely eliminate delays.

Last month, Pardeshi sent a team of his officials to Secundarabad to pick up tips from them. But he'll need the police in Bengal and other states to stay in step to maximise the relief the new measures can bring to applicants.

Summary: Regional Passport Officer S. Sasikumar on Friday announced that the Ministry of External Affairs has decided to accept the following categories of photo affixed passbooks of banks authorised by Reserve Bank of India as proof of address and identity. The indicative list of banks authorised by RBI included 26 public sector banks, 56 regional rural banks and 23 scheduled private banks. Names of authorised banks will be available in the Ministry's website.

Certificates

In view of the genuine difficulty faced by applicants in producing original certificates relating to education, especially when the same had been deposited with an institution for higher education, Ministry has announced certain relaxation in norms. Waiving the mandatory requirement of producing original certificates such as birth certificate, SSLC and other educational documents, passport applicants can henceforth submit a certificate from the recognised educational institution where they are studying. Certificate should be to the effect that he/she studying in that institution had deposited his/her original educational certificates and that are retained by the institution.

Photocopy of the retained documents duly attested by the institution should also be furnished, besides a copy of the valid identity card of the applicant issued by the said institution.

Summary: The Passport Seva portal won the Web Ratna Award among all government portals for its designing and service category. Z.A Khan, Regional Passport Officer, Ahmedabad said, "So far, we have received several awards in various areas like ICT applicant, IT Security, citizen service and now the portal. It is really a very good news for us." The Web Ratna Awards, constituted by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, acknowledges exemplary initiatives/practices of various states/UTs in the realm of e-governance.

Summary: A spokesman of Passport Office (PO) Srinagar Friday said that the office has made all possible efforts to process the passports of maximum number of Hajj aspirants for this year. In statement, a PO spokesman said that receipt of around 25000 Passports by State Hajj Committee from Kashmir Zone Hajj 2015 aspirants was a testimony to the efforts of the PO.

"Around 13000 number of Passport applications (approx. 320 per day) were processed this year besides 9500 (approx. 230 per day) Passport services rendered. These were mostly Hajj aspirants .This is in continuation to issuance of around 1,77,000 Passport Services since 2012.The performance post floods assumes significance in view of damages to this office in floods," the statement said. The statement said that under the special waiver of fee to those damaged passports in floods, duplicate passports were issued free of cost to all those who approached the office.

"Even good number of applicants, not cleared earlier, was recommended for passport services particularly for Hajj pilgrimage. Also the passport holders not able to avail passports for Hajj pilgrimage were facilitated with extended validly in consonance with requirements of Hajj Committee."

The statement said that continuing with endeavors to ease out processing, the major issue of furnishing of residential proof papers was ameliorated. "Ministry has allowed accepting of photo passbooks of private banks like J&K Bank, J&K Grameen Bank, Elaaqai Dehati Bank etc. also. The other measures taken include students having deposited original documents in institutions can submit photocopies after fulfilling the requisite formalities men-tioned in concerned advisory/circular."

"Online per day appointment quota increased to 420 and applicants are advised to avail the facility for hassle-free processing of their applications instead of visiting Passport Office without proper appointments."

Summary: When Satyashree Sharmila decided to apply for a passport online last October, the form asked her to fill up the sex column as 'Male' or 'Female'. The 33-year-old, who had given up the gender she was born into over a decade ago and now identifies as a transgender, approached the passport authorities with her problem. They asked her to tick any of the boxes in the online form and promised to change it later. But Satyashree was not having any of it.

A few months ago, in April 2014, the Supreme Court had sanctified the third gender by asking the government to make sure transgenders get job quotas and facilities including voter card, passport and driving licence. A few days after meeting the passport authorities, she found the online application form had a third option in the column for sex: 'Transgender'. On February 15, 2015, Satyashree received her passport — the first person in Maharashtra, and perhaps India, to be issued the document with her gender listed as 'Transgender'.

"It was one of the happiest moments of my life," Satyashree, a law graduate, told TOI. Satyashree, who stays in Vikhroli, is a board member and program manager under Project Pehchan of Darpan Foundation which works for transgender and hijra community rights in Mumbai. Satyashree's passport adds to the growing recognition the third gender is being accorded in India. In 2013, the Election Commission had issued voter cards to transgenders for the first time.

Activists said usually transgender persons get passports that identify them as a 'Female'. This is not an identity that most transgender persons are comfortable with. Born into a middle class family in Tamil Nadu with a government officer as father, Satyashree says she knew growing up that "I was different from the other kids". As a teenager, Satyashree found out about the hijra community. Determined that she did not want to go into sex work or begging — the only professions open to the hijra community, she focused on her studies and graduated in law.

In 2006, she left her home one final time, with her educational certificates in her bag, for Mumbai. Her guru in Mumbai was supportive about her ambition to work, but Satyashree met rejection and disillusionment. "Nobody was willing to offer me a job despite my educational qualifications," said Satyashree, who then went to work as a peer educator with an NGO.

The passport struggle has its roots in her battle to get other documents like Pan card, Aadhar card, etc, for herself and her community members. "Very few in the community had proper identity cards or any document that would prove their existence or help them benefit from government schemes. Besides facing harassment and discrimination, it was difficult to get medical aid at government hospitals," said Satyashree. Over the last few years, she has worked to sensitise government departments and hospitals.

The joy of getting her passport as a transgender is tempered with the realization of the stigma that follows the community. "My parents may accept me, but I am apprehensive about how the society and the village will treat them once they come to know that their son is now a hijra. I don't want my family and my brothers to be affected because of me," said Satyashree.

Summary: Passport-seekers' now stand double the chance of getting an appointment. The Regional Passport Office (RPO), Bengaluru, has doubled the number of appointments with as many as 4,160 appointments being available this March. The RPO has seen a huge demand for passports over the last year, with the figures surpassing a whopping five lakh in 2014. This year too, until March 3, as many as 1.01 lakh passports have been issued and the number is expected to cross six lakh by year-end.

P.S. Karthigeyan, Regional Passport Officer, said the 4,160 daily appointments available as of now includes 500 Tatkal appointments and excludes walk-ins (for four categories, including senior citizens, infants and candidates with physical disabilities). A gradual increase in the number of appointments was made from November-end. With this, the RPO intends to cut down on the waiting time of applicants.

From the earlier average of 51 days, it has been brought down to around 12 to 16 days now, Mr. Karthigeyan said. In Kalaburagi, There may soon be no need for applicants in and around Kalaburagi to go to Bengaluru to get their passports. The existing passport centre at Kalaburagi, which manually issues applications and collects payments, is set to be upgraded to a mini-Passport Seva Kendra within a week.

Summary: Making successful representation with the Regional Passport Officer, the Telangana Hajj Committee ensured issue of 452 passports to Hajj aspirants. It must be noted that it was obligatory for Hajj aspirants to submit the copy of passport along with Hajj application. However several aspirants approached Hajj Committee and represented that they either didn't possess passports or they are not valid as per Hajj Committee conditions.

Meeting with the Regional Passport Officer Special Officer Hajj committee Prof. S A Shukoor apprised him of the problems faced by the intending Hajj pilgrims and requested him to ensure issue of passports at the earliest. Due to successful and timely representation of Special Officer Issuance of passports of 452 intending Hajj pilgrims could be made possible.

Summary: The Regional Passport Office in the city has in a release informed that the jurisdiction of Bharuch district will be realigned with the Regional Passport Office of Ahmedabad from March 6, 2015 onwards.

This means passport applicants from Bharuch district will be services from any of the four Passport Seva Kendras-Mithakali, Vijay crossads, Vadodara and Rajkot. The last two also fall under the jurisdiction of the RPO in Ahmedabad. It should be noted that earlier, passport applicants from Bharuch were serviced from the Passport Seva Kendras falling under the Surat Regional Passport Office.

An official release said that the applicants applying on and after March 6, 2015 would need to select any of the above PSKs while filling the online application form.

"The issuance of passports for the applications applied online on or after March 6 2015 will be undertaken from RPO Ahmedabad," the release said. It further added that applicants who have already applied online, generated the ARN and taken appointments will continue to be services at Vadodara II PSK. The issuance of Passport for the application applied online prior to March 6 2015 will be undertaken by RPO Surat. The cut-off date for applying online and scheduling appointment at Surat and Vodadara II PSks will be March 5, 2015 for the residents of Bharuch districts. There are no other changes in the procedure of filling up the online application form and processing of application at the PSks. Any enquiries will be entertained by RPO Surat for the applications applied online till March 5, 2015.

Summary: DUBAI Indian expats in the UAE can now get their consular grievances redressed on a new online system introduced by the Indian Government, a top official said. Indian Consul-General Anurag Bhushan said on Monday the grievances include labour issues, death cases, compensation cases and missing persons. Queries related to passport and visa services are not covered under the system.

Called MADAD or the MEA Consular Grievances Monitoring System, the forum in Hindi is being implemented through the Indian missions in the UAE.

The portal aims to facilitate online logging and tracking of complaints pertaining to consular services by complainants. To begin with, a user needs to open the link to the Madad portal, which is available as Passport Seva Online (www.passportindia.gov.in). First time users need to create an account by entering their name, phone, email and password. The account needs to be verified by clicking on a link sent to the user's email ID. Once the log in is successful, the user can file his or her own complaint or on behalf of someone else. The entire history of the grievance would be maintained online and the user can check the status and updates by logging in later. In a separate development, the Consulate has announced two new cultural initiatives to promote Indian culture and science in UAE.

Summary: Remember to be courteous to visitors to the passport office at all times, said Inspector General of Police (south zone) Abhai Kumar Singh here on Saturday

Inaugurating a day-long event, 'Citizen service, quality management and IT security,' organised at Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) for employees of passport office and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), he said that it may be a mere document for identity proof for a few, but for a large majority, passport was the only means to go abroad for employment. Narrating his experience on difficulty he faced while opening a bank account nine years ago over lack of identity proof, Mr. Singh said that every applicant may not be aware of rules and regulations and documents to be produced for getting passports.

Many may not have ration card or driving licence. The passport staff should treat them politely and educate them on the procedures. He assured that the police department would help expedite the verification process to avoid delay in issuance of new passports. Regional Passport Officer A. Muneeswara Raja said that 2.28 lakh passports were issued in the Madurai region last year alone, thanks to swift police verification and efficiency of passport staff and TCS employees at PSKs in Madurai and Tirunelveli.

The two PSKs served 1,350 visitors in a day, on an average, last year. The passport staff worked for seven hours a day and took approximately two minutes to scrutinise each application, which showed their efficiency. While the staff strength remained static, the number of passports issued had risen from one lakh in 2008 to 2.28 lakh last year. The Madurai Regional Passport Office bagged 'Puraskar 2014' for best e-governance standards among passport offices in the country. A majority of the passport applications were received from Kanyakumari, Rameswaram and Madurai last year, Mr. Raja said. Earlier, Assistant Passport Officer V. Chellapandian spoke.

Summary: In view of the difficulties faced by applicants and to streamline the requirements of obtaining a passport, the Vizag RPO has decided to accept photo passbooks issued by scheduled private Indian banks as well as regional rural banks in addition to scheduled public sector banks as a valid document for proof of address, Vizag regional passport officer NLP Choudary said on Saturday.

Choudary also said a training programme-cum-workshop was conducted at the Vizag RPO, Marripalem, on Saturday to train passport officials on citizen service, quality management and security. The workshop focused on awareness generation among the employees on ISO certification for the passport seva project. Emphasis was laid on citizen-centric behavior and improving quality of services, he explained.

Summary: Passport applicants can very soon fill up forms on their mobiles with modalities being worked out to offer the facility to the tech savvy, revealed Chief Passport Officer Muktesh K. Pardeshi on Friday. Mr. Pardeshi said that the App ‘mpassport seva’ can be downloaded now but the facility of submitting applications through mobiles will take sometime.

"There are issues like sharing the revenue with the telecom service provider of the applicant and also the banks. Our team had already discussed it with State Bank of India and talks with other players are on," Mr. Pardeshi said. As of now, one can get the entire information on the application except submitting the forms. Transgenders are also now being allowed to choose their sex in the application form and several passports have already been issued after they wished their gender to be included specifically, he said while the 'e-passports' may roll out in 2016. They need a special chip and the Indian Security Press in Nasik has to acquire it in the market.

Summary: These are in addition to the seven PSKs in Andhra Pradesh and TS. Mr. Pardeshi, who spoke to the media along with the Hyderabad Regional Passport Officer, Ashwini Sattaru here on Friday said new Passport Seva Kendras will further enhance the efficient functioning of Hyderabad RPO that stood first in the country in clearing the applications last year.

The Hyderabad RPO had released 5,277 slots per day while Vishakapatnam centre was giving 1,223 slots. He said Andhra Pradesh and Telangana police had an efficient system in clearing the applications. While Police Verification (PV) in Andhra Pradesh was taking 15 days Telangana was completing it in 19 days and this was much better than the national average of 41 days. Last year, 85 per cent of PVs were processed within the desired time limit of 21 days in AP while 73 per cent got completed in Telangana within the same limit.

Passport melas

The RPO Hyderabad received 7.17 lakh applications last year, which is an increase of 13 per cent while Vishakapatnam received 2.02 lakh applications, an increase of 37 per cent. He said the RPO would increase the number of passport melas in the two States reaching out to people in towns like Adilabad, Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Chittoor, Anantapur, Kadapa, Guntur and Nellore.

Summary: In order to reach remote areas to benefit the citizens, the Ministry of External Affairs would organise at least 250 Passport Seva camps across the country during this year, a top official said here today. "The plan is to conduct at least 250 camps all over India during 2015," Muktesh K Pardeshi, Joint Secretary (PSP) and Chief Passport Officer, Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters here.

"Last year, we did 61 Passport Seva camp days mostly in second half of the year. More than 16,000 applications have been received through 61 Passport Seva camp days organised in remote locations," he said. 384 passport melas were organised during 2014 and 1.99 lakh passport applications were received at these passport melas, he said. "Through Passport Seva camps we are going to touch areas which are really outlined like Lakshadweep. We are going to have camps in entire North East, in Ladakh and Leh. The whole concept is to reach people who are living in remote and outlined areas. They should not remain outside the coverage of citizen service," he said.

In Telangana, Passport Seva camps would be organised in Medak, Karimnagar, Adilabad, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Khammam districts while in Andhra Pradesh such camps will be organised in Chittoor, Kurnool, Kadapa, Anantapur, Prakasam, Nellore and Guntur districts, he said. "The government has social obligation to reach out to interior and far flung areas. The whole idea is that the government is committed to deliver citizen service, in this case, passport service in the most convenient manner to the applicants," Pardeshi said.

During the period January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014 a total of 1.01 crore applications for passport and related services were processed by the Ministry of External Affairs. While 87.03 applications for passport and related services had been received, 84.69 lakh passports and related documents had been issued through the Passport Seva System, Pardeshi said.

Summary: For the convenience of haj applicants, regional passport office (RPO), Lucknow has appointed haj assistance. Besides, a nodal officer has also been appointed to receive haj applications and attend to and solve grievances. "These officers will exclusively deal with haj applicants," said regional passport officer, Lucknow, RN Rai. Separate counter for haj applicants is functional at RPO Lucknow. Haj applicants who have their police verification report cleared will be issued passports without delay. Other applicants can contact the nodal officer or haj assistant.

Summary: A seminar on motivation and public dealings was conducted by leadership guru Avinash Ananda at the Passport Seva Kendra in Mundhwa on February 4 which was attended by the staff and other passport officials, including those of Tata Consultancy Services. The seminar is part of a series of human resource development initiatives planned by the Regional Passport Officer.

Over hundred staff members attended the seminar organized to boost their morale and to help them improve their work performance, especially in dealing with passport applicants. Lectures on stress management and corporate yoga were held last year for the staff in the months of June and December respectively.Every day, the staff members deal with 1,200 applicants at the Passport Seva Kendra. Regional passport officer Atul Gotsurve is hopeful that the lectures will help the staff deliver better citizen services.

"It is not easy dealing with so many applicants on a daily basis. I also need to think of the well-being of my team. I am sure all these initiatives will help improve their productivity at work, which will translate into better services for the passport applicants," he said.

Summary: Imagine the pain if you had to travel hundreds of kilometres - once, twice or even thrice - to get your passport done. People residing in North Bengal, and even northeast states like Gangtok and Tripura, have been doing exactly that for years now. But things are finally looking up for the unfortunate lot. Five new Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) - one each at Siliguri, Gangtok, Agartala, Kharagpur and another one in Kolkata - will come up soon to take the load off the lone PSK currently operating in the city.

However, for Tatkal, applications from all districts will be processed at the Kolkata PSK. At present, the Kolkata PSK serves as the only office for the entire south Bengal, a part of north Bengal and also states from the northeast. All the preliminary jobs, including screening of documents and applications, are done here. "So, if there's something not in order or missing, people from these areas would go back and come again. But now, once the new PSKs start functioning, they do not need to come all the way to Kolkata for interviews. All documents will be processed at respective PSKs," said regional passport officer Geetika Srivastava.

The Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Kolkata, however, will continue to act as the back-office and nerve centre for these new PSKs. Though opening of the new PSKs has come a huge relief, sources said the crisis is far from over. It is learnt that no new recruitment has happened in passport offices since 2010. A large number of employees are on the verge of retirement. In 2016, a number of RPO employees will retire, making things worst. Then there will be offices but no one to run them, said a source.

The Kolkata-RPO issues around 3.5 lakh passports every year, but around 1 lakh applications are currently stuck in the region for various glitches. "The online system saves at least two weeks, which is the amount of time normally required to transfer documents manually from the passport office to the police and vice-versa. For that to happen, all the districts must be connected online," said an RPO official.

Summary: Passport verification will be done in three days, if the applicant resides in the Cyberabad police commissionerate jurisdiction. On Monday, Cyberabad police commissioner CV Anand in the presence of intelligence chief B Shivadhar Reddy and regional passport officer (RPO) Ashwini Sattaru issued 70 Samsung tablets (Tabs) to police personnel involved in field-level passport verification to expedite the process.

According to the Cyberabad police commissioner, the current passport verification process, on an average, takes 13 days as the unit office at the commissionerate downloads applications from the passport office website and hands over hard copies to field-level police personnel every weekend. Then, the field staff would carry out verification and re-submit the applications to unit office the following week.

The same would then be uploaded to passport office website. "In the new system, the field-level police personnel involved in the passport verification process can directly see the application on their Tabs and, after finishing the verification, the application will be updated and the unit office sends the same to the passport office. The entire process takes three days' time. All Tabs would have high-speed internet," Anand added.

At the launch of Tab-enabled verification process at the Cyberabad commissionerate, RPO Ashwini Sattaru said that the ministry of external affairs has set a target to issue 1.25 crore passports this year and such targets could be achieved only when police use modern technology. Intelligence IG Shivdhar Reddy said, it was a first of its kind initiative in the country, where modern technology like internet-enabled Tabs would be used for quick passport verification. The 70 tabs were purchased by the police department through a tender process for Rs 16 lakh.

In 2012, the Cyberabad police had processed 75,000 passport applications (average 20 days for each application). In 2013, 88,000 applications were processed with police personnel on an average taking 15 days to process each application. However in 2014, 95,000 applications were cleared with police on an average taking 13 days to complete verification of each application.

Summary: The Ministry of External Affairs has waived the requirement for producing original certificates by student applicants while applying for passports, according to the Regional Passport Office. In a press release issued here, S.Lingasamy, Passport Officer, Tiruchi, pointed out that all passport applicants are required to produce original documents while submitting their passport applications. However, it has come to the notice of the Ministry of External Affairs that some passport applicants, especially students, are unable to produce the original certificates which are deposited with educational institutions.

In order to address the genuine grievance faced by such applicants, the Ministry has decided to waive the mandatory requirement of producing original certificates. In such cases, the passport applicants can submit a certificate from recognised educational institutions stating that he/she is studying in that institution and the original certificates are retained with the institution. The applicants should produce photocopies of such documents duly attested by the educational institution along with a copy of identity card issued by the institution.

In case of any doubt about the genuineness of the certificate, the same will be referred to the issuing authority for verification. The decision of the Passport Issuing Authority will be final in such cases, the release said.

Haj helpdesk

Mr. Lingasamy also disclosed that only those who possess passport which are valid at least up to March 31, 2016 will be permitted to apply for Haj 2015. Applications of Haj aspirants would be processed on priority basis. Passport would be issued in such cases upon completion of requisite documentation, police verification, and other formalities. A special Haj helpdesk would function at the Regional Passport Office at Marakkadai in the city till February 20 to provide information on all queries relating to passport applications, application status, and address grievances.

Summary: The passport office wants to bring down the end-to-end time taken for normal applicants from 7-8 weeks to 3-4 weeks in Bengaluru. Bengalureans may soon be able to get their passports in three to four weeks of their applying for one as the passport authorities and the police are working together to cut down on the time taken for police verification. The passport office wants to bring down the end-to-end time taken for normal applicants -from applying for passport to getting one in hand - from 7-8 weeks to 3-4 weeks in Bengaluru. "There is no time lag in printing and dispatch of passports regardless of whether it is normal or tatkal. We issue passports as soon as we get police clearance," Regional Passport Officer (RPO) PS Karthigeyan told ET.
The waiting period for appointment, for normal applicants, has reached 28-35 calendar days even though the RPO has increased the number of appointments. It used to be about 50 calendar days a year ago. The police verification used to take up to 46 days in 2013, and 26 in 2014. This year, the RPO is targeting 21 days in the State by working with the police. Police Commissioner MN Reddi said they have made a lot of progress on reducing the time taken for verification, and will do better in the coming days. "We will progressively reduce the time taken by giving targets to field officers and monitoring their compliance," he said.
At another level, the passport authorities hold melas whenever the waiting period gets longer. They are holding two such melas on Jan 31 and Feb 14 to ease the rush. The melas will benefit 6,400 applicants in Bengaluru alone. "Even those who have already taken an appointment can exercise the reschedule option in our website, and ask for an appointment at the mela. The first timers, however, can directly opt for the mela," Karthigeyan said. "Our melas will ease four days of pressure," he added. The melas too are going higher in scale: while six melas last year together handled 8,000 plus applicants, it is expected to be substantially higher this year. The daily appointment has gone up significantly.
The passport office, according to Karthigeyan, has increased the appointments from 1,525 last year at the two passport seva Kendras (PSKs) in Bengaluru to 2,405 this year. This is exclusive of daily walkin interviews of 400-500. "The productivity at our offices has gone up.We have strengthened the staff at PSKs, and availed the services of temporary workers as well to handle the appointments," he said.
In December 2013 and June-July of last year, the passport authorities had faced a severe shortage of passport booklets after the security press at Nasik faced had issues with raw material supply. The passport offices now have a comfortable stock of about 40,000 booklets, the RPO said. The passport authorities are expecting a huge rush in applications this year as handwritten passports are going to be invalid after November this year.

Summary: Special counters to assist Haj aspirants have been opened at Passport Office Srinagar. Those passport holders whose valid passports are returned or not accepted by State Haj Committee due to damage complaint in booklets can be processed under Walk-in category on priority after furnishing on line registration number, a Passport Office statement said. Haj aspirants are free to meet Passport Officer regarding any passport related issue.

Summary: The regional passport office has opened a social audit cell, which will help applicants conduct audits of their passport applications. The applicants will be provided with details on why applications are pending, reasons for the delay and what requires to be done to speed up the process. The cell will provide applicants all information guaranteed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The public grievance redressal mechanism has been further strengthened to facilitate speedy clearance of pending cases.
Applicants, whose passport have been pending for a long time, can meet the deputy passport officer or regional passport officer without any appointment on all working days from 9am to 12.30pm except on Tuesday at the regional passport office in Rayala Towers, Anna Salai. This is being done to empower applicants, especially from rural areas and enhance transparency of the passport office, an official release said. To help applicants, an official has been deployed at the social audit cell. Copies of documents such as police verification reports with police remarks, file notes of verification officer or granting officer regarding applications on hold, details of previous or lost passports and details about information sought from Indian missions abroad will be provided. Normally, from the Chennai RPO, passports are issued between two and 25 days from the date of application, depending on the requirement of police verification reports. Applicants whose passports have been delayed can now approach the cell for help.