Hyderabad, April 29: A sudden surge in the number of passport seekers, shortage of staff and software glitches have conspired to cause a logjam at the Regional Passport Office (RPO), and applicants are frustrated.
The pendency of application now stands at little over 50,000 and applicants will have to be patient for a few more months.
“There is no immediate solution.
But we are taking a series of steps and the delivery mechanism will improve in 2-3 months,” says Regional Passport Officer Srinivas Gotru.
Interestingly, both the global recession and the recovery from it have had their impact on the passport process. If the average number of applications received daily was around 1,200 in 2009, the peak recession year, it has gone up to 1700-1800 this year.
In a conversation with Express, RPO Srinivas explains the reasons for the current situation and how he intends to overcome it.
What are the issues you are confronted with? First, the rise in the number of applicants this year. From 3.73 lakh applications in 2008, the number went down to 3.25 lakh in 2009. It could have been because of the recession — less foreign travel and availability of jobs. But there has been a spurt since January this year. Second, manpower issues. As against a sanctioned strength of 172, we are managing with 140. I have asked for deputation of staff from other RPOs.
Third, quite a few countries in the Middle East are now insisting on a police clearance certificate (PCC) along with the passport.
(Tatkal passports are normally issued without a PCC, which is obtained later by the RPO). Getting a PCC takes time, and adds to the delay. I am not denying that there is a lag but there are reasons for it.
We understand there are problems relating to software.
Yes, we migrated to a more modern software because there were a couple of crashes in the last year.
But we have to ensure that our huge data base is not lost. We are hopeful that all software migration issues will be sorted out soon.
Any new initiative we can look forward to in the near future? The Seva project in being launched in association with TCS, first up in Bangalore. It will come here in about six months. Once this is in place, we will have six passport Seva kendras — three in Hyderabad and the remaining at different places in the state. Half of the work relating to front-end processing will be handled by these kendras before the papers are sent to the RPO for final vetting.
Therefore, once the project is in place, delivery of passports will be faster.
There are complaints that applicants are having problems with online registration.
In the past, online Tatkal registration used to be open-ended and there was criticism that appointment dates were being given several days later. Since January, we are keeping only 300-400 slots for Tatkal booking online. It opens at 1 am every day and all the slots taken within the first 15 minutes.
But this restriction is required right now, because there is no point in giving slots if I am unable to handle the load.
Some people are saying that slots are being sold. How can this happen? The web server which manages online registration is in Delhi.
There have been alarmist reports in the media. If people smell something wrong, why can’t they complain to the Vigilance Cell? If someone in my office is demanding money for a particular work, I can take action. But how can anyone blame us if online slots are booked? Some of them have set up computer kiosks around the passport office and people still prefer to go to them. How can I throw them out? They say it is an internet kiosk. Applications are also received at designated post offices (74), eSeva centres (20) and through recognised travel agents (95). Where is the need to go to a broker? On the one hand, you are fuming at me for not accepting any number of applications (there have been lathicharges on restive crowds at the RPO recently). On the other, you are also blaming me for a delay in the delivery of passports.
I have a certain number of people for accepting applications and a certain number for processing. If I have to accept more applications, I have to divert staff from the processing section.
This will have a cascading effect.
–Agencies