INDIA:Issuance of Passports through Passport Sewa Kendras
-----------------------------------------------

17:9 IST
Passports are issued as per the provisions of the Passports Act 1967 and the Passport Rules 1980 as amended from time to time. Prior to issue of a passport, in the normal course, the Passport Issuing Authority needs to establish the applicant’s citizenship, identity and an absence of criminal record as mandated by the Passports Act. This requires verification which is carried out by the Police authorities. In view of this background, Government is aware that in a number of cases passports are not issued within the target of 30 days for fresh passports and 15 days for re-issue of passports.

The instances of non-traceable applications in Passport Offices are few and far between and every effort is made to take remedial action.

The Government has embarked on the Passport Seva Project (PSP) to comprehensively transform the passport service delivery system so as to provide passport related services in a timely, transparent, more accessible, reliable manner in a comfortable environment. M/s Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have been selected as the service provide for the front-end operations. This is a Mission – Mode Project under the e-governance plan of the Government of India. Its successful implementation will lead to a speedy delivery of all passports. The PSP has already been launched at four Centres in Karnataka and is on a trial run at Chandigarh.

The basic design involves outsourcing of non-sensitive front-end activities to a service provider and retaining sovereign and sensitive functions with the Government. Under the Project, 77 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) are proposed to be set up across the country. PSKs are set up by the Service Provider under the supervision of the Ministry and are headed by the officers of the Central Passport Organisation.

The employees of Central Passport Organisation have been cooperating in the implementation of the Project; however, the All India Passport Employees Association (AIPEA) has requested that their service related issues be addressed expeditiously by the Government.

This information was given by Shri S.M. Krishna, Minister of External Affairs, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.