Apart from cricket, potholes and the weather, there is one other subject people can expound for hours on end — the process of applying or renewing their passport.
So, when The Hindu announced the theme of It's Official, its monthly reader connect programme, on this precious document, it drew people from all walks of life. Some had basic doubts while others were faced with more complex situations. And then there were senior citizens, who were all at sea over the new online system, parents who needed answers to specific queries such as documents for photo identity for adopted children, applicants at the receiving end of the “unfriendly behaviour” of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) personnel at the Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) and those still waiting for their passports, though their applications had been submitted months ago.
K.J. Srinivasa, Regional Passport Officer, Bangalore, answered each question with diligence and patience at the interaction held at The Institution of Engineers here on Saturday. Assistant Commissioner of Police (City Special Branch) Balaji Singh addressed issues relating to the mandatory police verification for issue of the passport.
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The shift from the hard copy to the online application process under the recently introduced Passport Seva Project, a public-private initiative by the Union Ministry of External Affairs and TCS, engendered several teething problems. ( The Hindu had reported on the logjam this had caused in the PSKs here.) Thereafter, the process underwent some streamlining. “But, from June this year, things are a lot better. It is an evolving system and it will improve in the days to come,” Dr. Srinivasa said.
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There was some criticism of the “discourteous behaviour” of the TCS personnel posted at the PSKs (TCS was not represented at the interaction). To this, Dr. Srinivasa said a proposal had been sent to the Union Ministry of External Affairs to train the personnel of both the IT major as well as the officials of the Passport Office in public relations. Also, there is a proposal to post an official from the Regional Passport Office at the enquiry counter now manned by the TCS representatives to minimise such instances.
When his attention was drawn to the mismatch in the documents demanded by the personnel at the enquiry counter and the list put up in the website, Dr. Srinivasa said the procedure to update the website was under way to do away with such inconsistencies.
He acknowledged the need for more PSKs in the State.
Police verification
Reacting to complaints regarding the delay in police verification, Mr. Balaji Singh said that his department's passport verification cell receives an average of 850 to 900 applications a day from the Regional Passport Office.
“With our limited workforce, we can download just about half of them. These have to be forwarded to the 103 police stations in the city by email for physical verification of the applicants. Ideally, police verification should be completed in two weeks,” he said.
Occasionally, the applicant would have mentioned the wrong jurisdictional police station, which results in further delay.