If you thought that submitting the passport application is the toughest step in the process of obtaining your ticket for greener pastures, you may be in for a surprise. Your passport might get ‘lost' even during the delivery process. While the delivery of the passport is supposed to be foolproof, in that it is a standard procedure to handover the passport only to the person concerned, there seems to be no guarantee for the same.
Layeeq Mohiuddin and his sister Sabia Sultana, both residents of Rajendra Nagar, applied for renewing their passports through ‘Tatkal' scheme on July 01. While Ms. Sultana's passport was delivered properly, Mr. Mohiuddin did not receive his passport even by the end of August. When he approached passport office he was informed that his passport was already despatched to his Humayun Nagar address, the address on his expired passport. When he raised a query with the postal department, he got a reply stating that his passport was already delivered.
“Though I submitted all my documents properly and updated the present address, my passport was sent to my old address. Now passport office maintains that since the document is already dispatched the ball is not in its court. And postal department says that it is not their responsibility if the passport office sent the passport to an old address. Even after an enquiry, the postal department maintains that they have already delivered my passport, which I do not have in my hand till now. I do not know what to do or whom to approach,” Mr. Mohiuddin lamented.
“My repeated queries have fallen on deaf ears and now both the departments are not allowing me to raise further complaints. Passport officials are not even allowing me inside their office,” he bemoaned.
Even after repeated efforts, the officials at the passport office were not available for comments.
