Passport applicants can very soon fill up forms on their mobiles with modalities being worked out to offer the facility to the tech savvy, revealed Chief Passport Officer Muktesh K. Pardeshi on Friday.
Mr. Pardeshi said that the App ‘mpassportseva’ can be downloaded now but the facility of submitting applications through mobiles will take sometime.
“There are issues like sharing the revenue with the telecom service provider of the applicant and also the banks. Our team had already discussed it with State Bank of India and talks with other players are on,” Mr. Pardeshi said. As of now, one can get the entire information on the application except submitting the forms.
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Transgenders are also now being allowed to choose their sex in the application form and several passports have already been issued after they wished their gender to be included specifically, he said while the ‘e-passports’ may roll out in 2016.
They need a special chip and the Indian Security Press in Nasik has to acquire it in the market.
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On passports to be issued to children born through surrogacy, he said the officials have not received any new cases after the last one two years ago.
The revised norms of the Government will be followed on the issue. India has joined the elite club of China and USA in processing one crore passport applications in a year (last year).
Around 13.73 lakh applications were received in 183 Missions and posts abroad and the same were also issued. Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh took the top five spots and accounted for more than 51 per cent of total applications.
However, Hyderabad RPO issued the most passports followed by Lucknow, Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata.
Mr. Pardeshi praised the Cyberabad police in Telangana for launching the paperless police verification and said it would be replicated in the entire country.
“I will meet the Cyberabad police to understand the system,” he said.