Orange passport: Govt. reverses its decision

New Delhi: Ministry of External Affairs in a release declared that the Union Government reversed its decision on the orange coloured passport.

According to the report published in Hindustan Times, after representations, the government has dropped the decision to issue an orange coloured passport. The decision to remove the last page of the passport which contains personal details was also reversed.

In the release, Ministry said, “After comprehensive discussions with the various stakeholders, the MEA has decided to continue with the current practice of printing of the last page of the passport and not to issue a separate passport with orange colour jacket to ECR (emigration check required ) passport holders”.

Earlier, MEA in the release said, the recommendations of a three-member panel, comprising officials from the External Affairs Ministry and the Women and Child Development Ministry, were accepted and it was decided that the last page of passports and other travel documents issued under the Passports Act, 1967, and Passport Rules, 1980, “would no longer be printed”

After representations, Govt. dropped the decisions.

It may be mentioned that earlier, experts had opined that separate coloured passport would create discrimination.