Siliguri to get passport office in three months: Deb

PRASHANT ACHARYA, EOI, Siliguri 25 Feb 2016: North Bengal Development Department minister Gautam Deb today came down hard on the Centre for failing to keep its promise of fully funding a passport liaison office or ‘sevakendra’ in Siliguri. 

He said the state government has decided to shoulder the responsibility and promised to have the office functioning within three months’ time. According to Deb, the central government sanctioned only 40 per cent of the total amount required, making it difficult to open and operate the office. 

He said the new passport office will come up in a building in Himachal Vihar. It may be mentioned here that on July 12 of last year, the NBDD minister had said, “If things go as planned, we expect all necessary work to be completed within a couple of months. Hopefully, the passport sevakendra should be functional before Durga Puja this year. The Centre has been provided with the details of the office site and it has been approved." 

A Passport Application and Collection Centre (PACC) was set up in Siliguri in the year 2000, but it was closed down abruptly on April 1, 2013 putting applicants from Siliguri and the entire north Bengal region in a quandary as they now had to go all the way either to Behrampore around 370km away or to Kolkata to obtain their passports. Addressing reporters this afternoon, Deb said he would soon make public all the development projects being undertaken by the SiliguriJalpaiguri Development Authority. 

He also criticised this year’s Railway budget saying the people of north Bengal have been neglected again. "From 2009 to 2011, the people of Bengal have witnessed what Mamata Banerjee as railway minister did for their welfare by starting new connectivity projects and new trains, but the BJP government at the Centre has failed to satisfy the residents of the state,” maintained the NBDD minister.