The average time taken for police verification of passport applications have been brought down to 25 days and steps are being taken to reduce it further, said M.Ramasubramani, Inspector General of Police, Central Zone, Tiruchi, here on Friday.
“From the earlier average of 45 days, we have brought it down to 25 days now. We are trying to reduce it further. At the same time, it is important to ensure that the applications are properly verified,” he said inaugurating a Passport Adalat at the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) here.
The Adalat was organised at Tiruchi and Thanjavur PSKs to allow applicants to apply for passports without online appointments which run out quickly owing to heavy demand. It was also meant to help Haj pilgrims apply for passports without having to wait for online appointments.
Mr.Ramasubramani said frequent coordination meetings were being held between officials of the Regional Passport Office and the police to expedite police verification and discuss pending cases, if any. The Passport Office has also ensured transparency in issue of passports and touts have been controlled.
Regional Passport Officer K.Balamurugan observed that passport is no longer just a travel paper but an economic document as people going abroad bring in foreign exchange. Demand for passports is very high in the Tiruchi region and the Regional Passport Office here issues about 1.70 lakh passports a year on an average.
Constant measures are being taken to expedite the process of issuing passports. Currently, police verification forms are sent directly to the police stations in Thanjavur district from the Thanjavur PSK through messenger, instead of the earlier process of routing it through the office of the Superintendent of Police in the district. An online system to enable downloading of the papers directly at the police stations concerned is to be introduced soon in Nagapattinam district, he said.
S.Vijayalakhsmi, Assistant Passport Officer, spoke.
