Bengal's third passport office in Siliguri soon

Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay,TNN | Nov 11, 2015, KOLKATA: Bengal's third Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) is set to open in Siliguri soon to reach out to more passport seekers. 

This would be of immense help to people in north Bengal, especially residents of Darjeeling district, who have to now travel 600km to Kolkata to submit their passport applications. The other two PSKs are in Kolkata and Behrampore. A PSK also started functioning in Gangtok from September. 

To reach out to more passport-seekers, the third of Bengal's Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) is coming up at Siliguri shortly. This would prevent passport seekers to travel 600 km from Darjeeling to Kolkata to submit their passport application. Earlier in September, the PSK, Gangtok has started operating. 

The regional passport office (RPO), Kolkata, will organize a Passport Adalat for settling disputes over pending passports on November 14 and 21 at the PSKs at Kolkata, Behrampore and Gangtok for applications pending more than six months for want of documents. Applicants whose status shows "not-yet-finalized" can attend the adalats for resolution. 

These PSKs and passport adalats are mounting pressure on the state police, which has earned notoriety for delays in the verification process. 

The backlog of passport verification in Bengal often crosses the one lakh figure, making it only next to Maharashtra, sources in the ministry of external affairs said. This is despite the ministry of external affairs offering Rs 100 for each police verification completed within three weeks. 

In Bengal, according to external affairs ministry sources, the average time taken for police verification till March 31, 2013, was 101 days. It came down to 93 days as on March 31, 2014. Currently, it has improved it a bit to take it to an average of 74 days. This is too long a period for police verification, way below the national average of 42 days, said an external affairs ministry source. 

The ministry has urged the state police to replicate the model of Hyderabad Police, which has taken advantage of technology to expedite the process of verification to a great extent. Hyderabad Police has issued tablets to their officers for real-time uploading of the verification report. The GPS-enabled tablets ensure transparency as it can be checked whether the verifying officer visited the applicant's home or not. 

A tab is given to each of them for uploading the verification report so that it can be checked online almost instantly. The officer only clicks a photograph of the applicant and uploads it through the tab to prove that he physically visited the applicant's home. The officer fills up a remarks column citing the reason in case he files an adverse report. 

In Bengal, policemen are expected to do things manually to verify an applicant's home, visit him/her at his/her address, check the relevant documents and file a report, either mentioning an objection or a no-objection. They brought the reports back to office and someone else uploaded it online and sent to the passport office. If the police verification is clear, the printing of the passport is initiated. In case of an adverse report, the RPO sends a showcause notice to the applicant.