Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 15: Out of the total 127940 passport applications received by the Regional Passport Office here in last one year and a half, nearly 127,107 applicants have successfully received their passports.
These figures were given by the Sajiv Arora, Secretary, Councilor Passport Visa, and Overseas Indian Affairs, during a press conference here today. He said last year the passport office received 86940 applications out of which 84107 passports were issued. Similarly, he said, till the end of June this year they have dispatched 43,000 passports, including some earlier applications, and received 41000 applications.
The number of passports received and processed by the three POPSK’s (Passport Seva Kendras) at Leh, Anantnag and Baramulla have increased proportionately, he said. In the first six months of this year, 13761 applications have been processed and received which was higher than the last year when the centers received 19230 applications. “The number of passport issued shows that this period has seen a swift rendering of passport services during the current, “he said. Click here to watch video
Besides the Passport Seva Kendra, he said, there are three Post Office Passport Seva Kendras here and Ministry of External Affairs and Department of Posts have finalized an MoU with these centers in January this year. “The passport offices have been opened all over India with a view to providing services to far-flung areas,” he said.
He said that the context of his visit was to obtain a firsthand assessment of passport operations while interacting with the officials. Besides, he said, he also got an opportunity to get valuable feedback from the applicants by meeting them. “Their suggestions and issues are useful to improve our performance,” he said.
In the last 5 years, he said, passport services have undergone a transformation. “This has been a period of transformational progressive changes, the uses of friendliness and further simplification of policies and procedures. In addition, the menu of options required to attach documents have increased largely,” he said, adding they issued 12.5 million passports all over Indian last year.
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