BENGALURU: The two Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) in the city — Lalbagh and Marathahalli — take 30 days and 29 days, respectively, to give an appointment for a passport applicant. In the case of the Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) at Jalahalli, it gets worse — 41 days. Even if one opts for the Tatkal route in PSKs, the minimum waiting period is 15 days.
The Passport Melas organised on and off on any Saturday with a week’s notice given to the public are a roaring hit with the 1,500 to 2,000 slots up for grabs getting booked in no time. With the number of those opting for passports going up by 10% annually, the demand is only set to increase in future.
Speaking to TNIE, Bharath Kumar Kuthati, Regional Passport Officer, Bengaluru said,”We are now working on increasing the manpower in two of our centres so that the number of daily applications can be scaled up. This will result in a reduced waiting period for all applicants. Organising more Passport Melas too are being contemplated.”
Kuthati said plans are afoot to accept an additional 75 applications per day at the Lalbagh centre which presently takes 1,150 applications daily while increasing the intake of applications at Jalahalli to 80 from the present 41 per day.
The POPSK at Jalahalli was opened on March 5, 2019. “When compared to the waiting period across all its five PSKs and 22 POPSKs, Jalahalli has the second longest waiting period. Mysuru tops the waiting time period with 43 days taken for an appointment to be given at its POPSK,” he said. However, in case of a genuine emergency, the Regional Passport Office in Koramangala prioritises those applications and issues passports instantly.
Bengaluru is clearly lagging behind other districts. The PSKs in Hubballi and Mangaluru or the POPSKs in Raichur, Chikkodi, Ankola and Raichur offer an appointment to an applicant in one day, the official said.
After the acceptance of the application, it takes between 10 days and 35 days (Yadgir) to get the passport due to the police verification process that is mandatory if the applicant is 18 and above and for first time applicants. For the financial year 2017-2018, a total of 7,45,096 passports have been issued across the state, with 17% of the applications being submitted via its POPSKs.
Bengaluru resident ends life in Kuwait,passport office helps family
The family members of Arshad Ali, a resident of Neelasandra, are distraught. The 32-year-old, who was employed in a private firm in Kuwait, committed suicide by hanging himself in his room on April 28. With no assistance from the employer to send the body back home, Ali’s mother, sister and cousin approached the Regional Passport Office in Koramangala for help late on Tuesday. The passport office got into action immediately. “The family members did not know the passport number of Ali, who is unmarried. Based on the inputs they gave us, we traced the passport on our system and contacted the Indian Embassy in Kuwait for help. Within a couple of hours, the embassy officials got back,” Regional Passport Officer, Bengaluru, Bharath Kumar Kuthati said. An individual — Khaleel — has been designated to assist in completing all the formalities there. “It is taking a bit of time to send the body back since it was a case of suicide. The embassy told us they will help in sending the body home,” Kuthati said.