Where there is a queue, there is a tout. And at queues in the Lalbagh Road Passport Seva Kendra – the largest in the State and one of the largest in the country – police are picking out touts aplenty.
On Thursday, the police arrested four touts, who were luring people with the promise of expediting the process, from the PSK premises. This follows the arrest of one tout on Wednesday while another had been handed over by PSK officials to the Wilson Garden police on Tuesday.
Earlier, PSK officials had lodged a complaint with the police about the tout menace. On Thursday morning, a team of policemen arrived posing as passport applicants. Immediately, they were approached by touts who claimed that they had “contacts” within the passport office who would hasten the process as well as contacts in the police who could ensure verification would be done quickly.
At the end of the raid, four touts – Manjunath, Murthy, Azeem and Mahadeva – were caught red-handed.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Sandeep Patil said the men were taking advantage of the anxiety of applicants. “We are probing if the touts have any links with staff of the passport office,” he said.
Menace is widespread
P.S. Karthigeyan, Regional Passport Officer, said the menace dogs all passport offices in the State. “We have asked the jurisdictional police to crack down on touts…with the entire system online, touts have no advantage over ordinary applicants. Unfortunately, even well-educated people fall into their trap and believe that only by paying Rs. 1,000 or more to touts can they obtain an appointment on the next day,” he said.
He added that they had requested the police to probe any links the touts may have had with officials in the PSK.
“We need to cross-check the claims of the touts and to confirm that there are no connections inside,” said Mr. Karthigeyan.
