NEW DELHI: To accelerate the delivery of passports and avoid delays, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will ensure issuance of passports to applicants whose Police Verification Reports (PVRs) have not been submitted within the stipulated period of 21 days.
The police authorities who fail to submit the PVRs within 21 days will also no longer be entitled to the PVR disbursement fee—which is Rs 150 per applicant.
In Punjab, a large number of applicants were allegedly getting their passports after long delays because the PVRs were not being filed by the police in border districts like Amritsar and Ferozepur.
Earlier, the MEA had given a period of 30 days beginning January 10 to the police for clearance of PVRs for the applications that had been submitted on or before December 31, 2018.
In case PVRs were not submitted before February, they were deemed ‘adverse’ in nature.
The MEA authorities, sources pointed out, had observed that in many cases applicants did not visit the Passport Sewa Kendras (PSKs) or the Passport Back Offices (PBOs) to submit additional documents which is another cause of pendency. (AGENCIES)
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