Online police verification to cut down delay

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, APRIL 30. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, today announced that the State Government would soon introduce online police verification of the antecedents of passport applicants to speed up issue of the permits.

Responding to complaints that police clearance was the biggest hurdle in quicker disposal of passport applications, he said that it would be possible for the police to give their report within one week after introduction of online verification. The Regional Passport Office (RPO) could send photographs and other details of the applicants to the Superintendents of Police on-line and get back their reports on computer.

The Chief Minister was participating in the long-overdue inauguration of the RPO building built and occupied last year. The Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. U. V. Krishnam Raju, declared open the building besides inaugurating a website of the Passport Office -- www.ap.nic.in/passport -- which has the status enquiry system to assist applicants.

Mr. Naidu urged the Minister to consider upgrading the Passport Collection Centres in Vijayawada and Tirupati into Passport Offices and to open new collection centres in other places.

He disclosed that following the success of the TWINS project at Banjara Hills for providing different services to consumers online, the Government had decided to launch 18 more centres in Hyderabad and Secunderabad in a phased manner within eight to ten weeks.

The Chief Minister said the proposal to build a new airport of international standards at Shankarpally was an integral part of his Government's aim of developing Hyderabad as a regional hub between Europe and China. Tenders for building the airport, now pending before the Government, would soon be finalised.

He said the international traffic to places like Dubai, Malaysia, the U.K., Australia and Germany would increase substantially because several international airlines were keen on starting new services to and from Hyderabad. This would lead to greater demand for passports, he added.

Moreover, the IT sector in Andhra Pradesh would witness an exponential growth with the inauguration of Phase II of HI-TEC City within one month and opening of similar centres at Warangal, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and other important places in a phased manner, the Chief Minister added.

Mr. Krishnam Raju said 22 lakh passports were issued throughout the country last year compared to 16 lakh in 1990. Passport offices in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam issued a record 3.5 lakh passports in 2000.

The Minister said one of the thrust areas was to reduce pendency in passport offices. His Ministry was holding discussions with the Finance Ministry the question of increasing manpower in proportion to the rising demand. He complimented the 2,000-odd employees working in 49 passport offices and collection centres for working tirelessly for reducing the pendency.

The Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Mr. Bandaru Dattatreya, said police verification was not only a major bottleneck in issuing passports but also a source of exploitation of gullible applicants by middlemen. There were instances where construction workers seeking jobs in the Gulf had to approach naxalites to get their money back from these middlemen. He wanted the passport offices to be more people-friendly.

Mr. J. C. Sharma, Additional Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, announced that Hyderabad and Bangalore passport offices had been adjudged the best in the country and would share a trophy introduced this year. Mr. M. Sevala Naik, Regional Passport Officer, Hyderabad, proposed a vote of thanks.

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