The External Affairs Ministry is making all required arrangements for
roll-out of the scheme in some of the select cities in first half of
March.
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.