The city police have asked passport applicants not to pay ‘tips’ to policemen (field officers) who visit them for conducting passport application verification. At the same time it has also warned the field officers of stringent action if complaints of demanding money are received against them.
Addressing a press meet here on Wednesday, Joint Commissioner (Special Branch), Y. Nagi Reddy said that applicants can contact the senior officials if any, policemen demands money for conducting passport application verification.
“Applicants need not fear of the policemen sending adverse police verification reports and blocking his passport if money it not paid to them. If one lodges a complaint we will re-verify the passport application through another officer and send a report to RPO,” Mr. Reddy said.
He said that the executives at call centre set up at the Commissioner’s Office are regularly calling passport applicants and taking their feedback. “The overall feedback is satisfactory except in few cases. Nevertheless we are organising counselling for those policemen who are not up to mark,” the official said.
Meanwhile, a 10-day long special drive has been launched by the Hyderabad police to clear the pending passport verification applications. The higher-ups hope to clear 7,444 pending passport applications during the drive.
Apart from 99 regular field officers, another 51 officers have been deployed to clear the passports. The police higher-ups have appealed to the passport applicants to cooperate with them to speed up the verification process.
