The Hindu : Passport procedures to be streamlined

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 23, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Passport procedures to be streamlined

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD March 22. The Home Minister, T. Devender Goud, assured the House on Saturday that the verification process of passports would be streamlined further and the Government was keeping track of criminals through a data bank to prevent issuing passports to wrong persons.

In response to the BJP member, K. Laxman's query, Mr. Goud said cases of fake passports too were coming to the notice of the Government and this year already five such cases had been booked. In all, 26 Pakistan nationals were overstaying in the city and most of those were women and children.

`Police highhandedness': The Congress members, K.Surekha, P.Laxmaiah and Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, demanded an enquiry into the incident in which women were ill-treated by policemen at the Janmabhoomi meeting on January 3 at Warangal for bringing their problems to the notice of the Government.

The Home Minister denied the allegation and said a little bit of force might have been used against women. The contention of the TD Whip, E. Dayakar Rao, kept blaming the women for being "regulars'' at such meetings and for creating a nuisance provoked Congress members to reiterate their charge that the women were thrashed. Mr. Dayakar Rao was categorically admitting that the police would beat up women if they protested and whether it was permissible to use policemen against women protestors, the Congress members argued.

Adulterated fertilizers: The Government was cornered by the Congress member, Anam Vivekananda Reddy, on the issue of adulterated fertilizers being sold in Nellore district with the Agriculture Minister, V. Sobhanadreeswara Rao, unable to justify the delay in taking action against erring traders.

Mr. Reddy contended that annually about 10,000 MT of spurious fertilizers were being sold in Nellore district and despite newspaper reports and some raids no action was taken against the culprits. Farmers had suffered a loss of Rs. 100 crores due to this.

Though the authorities raided some dealers' premises and registered cases in November last, no further action had been initiated and only petty cases had been booked against them. A CB-CID enquiry was supposedly held but its report had not come out yet giving room for apprehensions that the Government was trying to shield the culprits, he said.

The Minister said certain procedures had to be followed and hence the delay. He assured the House that the guilty would not be spared.

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