NEW
DELHI -- From next month, people in select cities will be able to apply for
passports in post offices under an ambitious initiative of the External Affairs
Ministry.
This is aimed at making
the passport issuance process hassle-free and ease burden on passport offices
across the country which are grappling with large volume of applications.
In the first phase of the project, passport services will be made
available in select post offices in Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka and Jharkhand and some other states.
The External Affairs Ministry, which issues passports, is making all
required arrangements for roll-out of the scheme in some of the select
cities in first half of March.Currently, 89 Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) are operating across the country as extended arms of the 38 Passport Offices.
According to the MEA, the government rendered 1.15 crore passport and other related services during 2016.
In Rajasthan, passport services will be available in Kota, Jaisalmer,
Bikaner, Jhunjhunu and Jhalawar while in West Bengal it will be in
Asansol, Nadia, North Dinajpur North Kolkata.
In Jharkhand, services will be offered in Deoghar, Jamshedpur and Dhandbad."It
is our effort that Post Office Passport Sewa Kendras announced in the
first phase should start functioning before 31.3.2017," External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted.
In Tamil Nadu, passport services in post office will be rolled out in
Salem and Vellore while in Karnataka, it will be in Belgaum, Davangere,
Hassan, Gulbarga and Mysuru.
According to MEA, the objective of the government has been to cater to
the demand for passports and to reach out to the people located far away
from the passport offices.
The MEA had recently liberalised norms for certain categories of
citizens as part of efforts to streamline the passport issuance process.
sourcewww.huffingtonpost.in/
