Police officers from eight districts falling under the jurisdiction of the Tiruchi Regional Passport Office underwent an orientation programme on the online system of filing police verification reports on Saturday, ahead of the opening of the Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) in Tiruchi and Thanjavur.
Trial operation
The PSKs went into trial operation since Monday. The PSKs located at Thillai Nagar in Tiruchi and on the Medical College Road in Thanjavur would be opened shortly, K.Balamurgan, Regional Passport Officer, Tiruchi told The Hindu here on Saturday.
The PSKs are being established as part of the Union government's initiative to deliver passport services to citizens in a “timely, transparent and reliable manner.”
TCS to handle front-end services
Tata Consultancy Services would handle the front-end services such as receiving the applications, photographing and collecting the biometric details of the applicants at the kendras.
However, all decision making processes would be carried out by passport office employees and officers.
On Saturday, a group of about 35 police officers from the eight districts of Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Pudukottai, Karur, Perambalur and Ariyalur were trained on the process of filing the police verification reports online after the opening of the PSKs. A team of technical personnel from the TCS trained the officers at the Tiruchi PSK, giving them a hands-on experience.
Processing time
According to Mr.Balamurugan the police officers would first file the verification reports online and forward the hard copies to the Passport Office subsequently. This would reduce the processing time of the police verification reports which are currently being forwarded through messengers to the Passport Office.
Mr. Balamurugan, who supervised the programme, also briefed the officers about the online system.
The Tiruchi PSK would cater to applicants from Tiruchi, Karur and Perambalur districts while the Thanjavur PSK would cater to applicants from the other five districts under the jurisdiction of the Tiruchi Regional Passport Office.
Some applications are already being processed everyday at the two PSKs as part of the trial operations over the past week.
A group of employees, who are to be deputed to the PSKs, have already been trained by the TCS personnel.
