The Bengaluru city police have walked away with the top slot as far as performance on verification for passports is concerned, but the Bagalkot police are also in the reckoning. Though they had the same average number of days as the Bengaluru police — 12 days — to complete verification within 21 days, and had zero pendency, Bengaluru Regional Passport Office (RPO) officials acknowledged that the numbers the Bengaluru police dealt with were far higher.
The police in other districts who had no pending cases in 2017 were Bidar, Kolar, and Koppal.
Overall, as on Wednesday, the total number of cases that were not completed within the stipulated 21-day period were 6,327. Of these, 53 cases were pending for more than 180 days.
Belagavi had the highest number of pending cases — 1,072. The other districts that posted high pendency rates were Tumakuru (880 cases), Kalaburagi (781 cases), and Hubballi (571 cases).
“Rural areas appear to be a problem as the police are taking a lot of time. Prioritisation is the issue. In places where law and order requires more concentration, passport verification tends to be pushed down on the priority list,” said Bengaluru Regional Passport Officer Bharath Kumar Kuthati.
An example is Belagavi, where the police take an average of 45 days to complete verification. “We do follow-up with the police from time to time, requesting them to complete the process as early as possible,” Mr. Kuthati added.
Pendency-clearance drive
The Bengaluru Regional Passport Office (RPO) also has 6,000 cases pending for granting (to be certified as being eligible for a passport), mainly because of vacations during December-end. To clear this, the RPO will be holding a pendency-clearance drive this Saturday. In addition, 14,000 cases are pending for printing and despatch, which will also be cleared soon, said the Regional Passport Officer.
