Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Eight Passport Facilitation Centres to come up in State

HYDERABAD: Out of the 68 Passport Facilitation Centres (PFCs) to come up in the country, eight will be in Andhra Pradesh.

Officials on Monday told The Hindu that three PFCs would be set up in Hyderabad, one in Telangana and two each in Rayalaseema and Andhra regions. A PFC would act as a centre where the front-end of the passport application procedures, such as filing of application forms, scrutiny, photo scanning and remittance of fee could be done. The scheme would be outsourced to private companies.

Employees of the Passport Office would be deployed at each of the PFCs to guide the operations.

The PFC would increase the security features to minimise frauds. Photograph of the applicant would be taken at the PFC and his or her bio-metric features collected. The Government staff would decide upon granting the passport after verifying applications and documents.

Then, the Passport Office at Hyderabad would print and despatch the passports to the candidates at the earliest. Police verification would be expedited through electronic linkage of the facilitation centres with the police department, said B. Bala Bhaskar, Regional Passport Officer, Hyderabad.

If the PFCs begin, persons from remote parts of the State need not come all the way to Hyderabad for securing passports. Only those whose applications are pending or rejected can sort out the matter with the RPO.

Referring to the reported delay in issuing of passports in some cases presently, Mr. Bhaskar said human error, omissions and commissions by the applicants themselves and staff crunch were the reasons.

“However, citizens with any grievances can always meet us during the stipulated time for clearance of their applications,” he said.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu