As per Government instructions, passports
to Indian citizens are issued as per the provisions of the Passports Act 1967
and the Passport Rules 1980 as amended from time to time. Prior to issuing a passport, the Passport
Issuing Authority must establish the applicant’s citizenship, identity and an
absence of criminal record as mandated by the Passports Act. This requires verification of personal
particulars of applicants and background check of their criminal antecedents
which are time consuming.
The Government is aware that in a
number of cases, there are delays in issuance of passport. The reasons for delay normally are as under:
(i)
increase
in demand for passport;
(ii) delays in receipt of police
verification reports within the stipulated time of 21 days;
(iii) receipt of incomplete police reports due to
submission of incomplete information/documentation by the applicants; and
(iv) Shortage of staff strength in the Central
Passport Organization, not keeping with the increase in demand for services.
The Government has fixed a time limit
of 30 days for issue of fresh passports and 15 days for re-issue of passports
and 1-7 days for Tatkaal applications.
The Government is considering several citizen-friendly proposals,
including revision of time-limit for issue of passports given in Ministry of
External Affairs’ Citizen Charter, to improve the delivery-process of passport
issuance.
In spite of various constraints, in
2011, the Ministry issued 73.65 lakh passports and related services which is a
record ever achieved in any year.
Some activities of middlemen have been noticed in and around Passport
Offices. In order to obviate any need to
approach any middlemen for any kind of service, passport application procedures
are prominently displayed in all the Passport Offices. Advisories cautioning
the public against middlemen/touts are also displayed prominently. Whenever middlemen activities are noticed,
Passport Officers, with the assistance of local police, conduct raids to
eliminate this menace.
In order to further simplify the
passport procedure, a Mission Mode Project (MMP) was identified under the
National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of the Government of India which inter alia
includes many other high impact e-Governance initiatives and projects. The MMP on Passports, named Passport Seva
Project, aims “to deliver all Passport-related services to the citizens in a
timely, transparent, more accessible, reliable manner & in a comfortable
environment through streamlined processes and committed, trained &
motivated workforce”. The Passport Seva
Project (PSP) incorporates the global best practices in the passport issuance
system. The key features of the PSP are enumerated below:
- Establishing 77 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) for delivering all front-end citizen services.( The Project has been completely executed and all 77 PSKs were made operational by early June 2012)
- Creation of on-line Passport Portal [www.passportindia.gov.in] for offering Passport services.
- Providing links to designated points in Police department.
- Establishing a Central Passport Printing Facility (CPPF) for handling extra load of Dispatch process to Postal Department.
- Introduction of a multi-modal Information and Grievance handling system.
- Creating a centralized IT system linking all PSK’s, Passport Offices, Police and Postal Departments.
- Introducing productivity linked incentive scheme for Government employees.
- Establishing a proper Program Governance Structure for managing the implementation and operation of all the above.
The Minister of State in the Ministry
Of External Affairs Smt. Preneet Kaur provided this information in reply to a
question in Lok Sabha today.
Source : PIB, August 17, 2012
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