Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Aug 10: After a long wait, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Jammu and Kashmir Police is all set to go online for Passport verification thus avoiding delay in clearance to get required authorization document by the people of this State.
For the purpose, services of Tata Consultancy have been taken and the Department officials are likely to get a password within days for downloading and uploading of the Passport application forms along with other relevant documents, official sources informed the Excelsior.
Trail run of the online verification is already on by generating reports on the existing lease line of CID Headquarters and the things are being operationalized in a phased manner, sources added.
Though there may be some initial hiccups in going fully online, the things are likely to be streamlined soon with practical know-how by the concerned officials and raising of additional infrastructure such as a dedicated lease-line for the Passport purpose only, sources explained.
Pertinent to mention that CID Headquarters, which is the nodal agency for Passport verification in J&K, was still practicing manual system for the purpose notwithstanding a Union Home Ministry’s directive to the State Government for switching over to online system.
Due to manual system, Passport verifications are getting delayed piling up the number and according to the sources, presently there are more than 20000 applications pending with the CID for verification purpose. The Union Home Ministry in its recent report had termed the verification process in Jammu and Kashmir as poorest and issued a directive to make the system online.
According to the sources, online verification will considerably reduce transit time of the application from CID Headquarters to Zonal Office and lower level thus speeding up the process.
However, on the other hand, official sources claim that manual verification was not the only reason for delay in Passport clearance but the difficult topography and the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is militancy infested State.
J&K is among the only three States of India where CID is nodal agency for Passport verification in view of prevailing insurgency and security reasons here, sources explained.
As per the existing system, Passport verifications are directly sent from the Regional Passport Office to the CID Headquarters from where these are forwarded to the Zonal office of CID and District Police.
With the help of their men at ground level, both District Police and Zonal Office of the CID prepare separate verification reports, which are sent back to the CID Headquarters for final clearance and then forwarded to the Regional Passport Office.
Besides the prevailing security scenario, topography of the State is another factor that results into delay in assimilating information for verification of the concerned person. Not only Kargil and Leh, there are other extremely difficult terrain in erstwhile Doda, Poonch, Rajouri, Kupwara, Gurez etc where there is no road connectivity and it takes days to reach the hamlets on foot, sources explained.
However, despite all this, the online verification will reduce the transit time between CID Headquarters and Zonal Office and subsequent offices at lower level thus ultimately helping the applicants, said a senior Police officer.
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