Though Kerala was officially declared a complete digitised State two years ago, the Home Department still struggles with the manual system to submit police verification report (PVR) for passport issuance.
The State police have not adopted the m-Passport Mobile App rolled out by the Ministry of External Affairs in January 2016 for speedy submission of PVR to the passport offices. Officials say Kerala is among the States which are yet to fully switch over to the District Police Headquarters (DPHQ) model, aimed at making the police verification easier.
The DPHQ model enables a District Police Chief to download the police verification form soon after an applicant successfully submits the application at the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) attached to any of the four Regional Passport Offices in the State and then forward them to the respective police stations.
However, such a system has been adopted only in Wayanad district from March 1 under the Kozhikode Passport Office, Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts under the Thiruvananthapuram Passport Office, and Ernakulam and Kottayam districts at the Kochi Passport Office.
“So the usual practice for other District Police Chiefs is to entrust a civil police officer to collect these forms from the regional passport offices the next day and then manually send them to respective police stations and vice versa. This leads to delay in issuing passports, ” an official told The Hindu .
One of the reasons cited is that the District Police Chiefs has not installed the equipment networking the police stations in each district. Last September, Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Vigilance) Nalini Netto had convened a meeting of police officers to speed up the process but to no avail.
Incidentally, the Ministry of External Affairs pays ₹150 as service charge per applicant to the State government if the police verification on a passport is completed in 21 days.
Officials said the m-Passport Police App is more advanced, facilitating the field level verification to directly capture the PVR into the system digitally. An officer need not download and print the physical personal particulars form and questionnaire, thus resulting in paperless end-to-end digital flow.
“This reduces the time required for completion of the PVR,” he said.
The Kochi passport office catering to Alappuzha, Erankulam, Idukki, Kottayam, Lakshadweep, Palakkad, and Thrissur districts issued passport and miscellaneous services to 4,20,293 persons in 2016, while the Kozhikode passport office catering to Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Mahe, and Wayanad districts serviced 2,29, 268 persons during the same period.
The Malappuram passport office that serves Malappuram district, as it has a majority of NRI population, issued 2,12, 243 passports and miscellaneous services, while Thriuvananthapuram catering to Kollam, Pathanamthitta, and Thiruvananthapuram districts served 2,22,785 persons.
