Please email your suggestions and support to the
jscpv@mea.delhi.nic.in
rpochen@tn.nic.in
cpoindia@mea.delhi.nic.in
The first is a group set up by the Ministry of External Affairs for passport reform.
The second is the regional passport officer , Chennai , the third is the chief passport officer.
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 17:31:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Saurabh Sharma <sasmdr@yahoo.com> | Block Address | Add to Address Book
Subject: suggestions , draft letter
To: rpochen@tn.nic.in
Dear Shri Mahalingam,
This has reference to our discussion on the 28th of June
2001 at your office.
I am submitting formally the following suggestions for your
comments. I hope you will find them worthy of being carried
forward to your forthcoming meeting on passport procedures
in Delhi.
OBJECTIVE
1) To eliminate the crowds at the passport offices
2) To give a renewal of an existing passport to the
citizens within seven days or ten days
3) To try and issue a new passport within fifteen days
BUILDING BLOCKS
A)PRE ISSUE OF PASSPORTS
The students at the plus two stage and students of
polytechnics and other educational institutions should be
encouraged to fill applications at the colleges itself and
submit them through the principal. The birth certificates
will be available and also school leaving certificates.
These students anyway come for passport independently. Why
not preempt this application and avoid the rush at the
counters ?
B) PASSPORT ADVISERS
A cadre of passport advisers needs to be created. This
cadre will have to undergo an examination ( conducted
online) and be given a registration certificate.
Their function will be to advise citizens about the
passport procedure , help them fill out forms , ensure that
the correct documents are attached and then submit it at
the nearest post office or passport office or even by mail.
To ensure meritocracy the Passport Office will periodically
issue bulletins giving a performance rating of these
advisers.
There will be a prescribed fee for this service and it will
be displayed prominently. Overcharging will lead to
suspension of licence.
This cadre can comprise of ex-servicemen, relatives of
passport office employees,private individuals.
To encourage competition and meritocracy , there should not
be any restriction on the number of people eligible.
Competition will eliminate most malpractices..each agent
has to create and have his reputation validated through a
scoring system.
A security deposit of Rs 5000/- can be collected from these
agents.
Creation of this category of people will generate
employment, give citizens a service and save the time of
employees of RPO's. Surplus employees can then be
redeployed in other functions such as issue of passports.
C) INTERNET ENTRY , SBI COUPON , PASSPORT BOOTH
Online entry of a passport application can be facilitated
and eventually made mandatory. This will save time of data
entry in processing.
A suggested procedure is
online entry - generation of application number or file
no., depending on the nature of application , list of
documents required printed out for citizen.
printing of a small receipt (index card) on successful data
entry.
individual goes to nearest SBI or nationalized bank and
pays the prescribed fee and gets a receipt.
the bank forwards the application to RPO.
the payment and forwarding can be undertaken by post
offices also.
a standard envelope should be designed and the applicant
should be asked to submit his application in this envelope
with address of RPO to the post office.
Many of our existing Internet cafe's and serve this
function..they will become passport booths.
D) RENEWAL
The passport details are available online at all airports
and quite possibly at the RPO's.
The previous passport details can be checked online and
renewal issued in seven days or even across the counter.
If the booklet has not been used extensively, the new
extension date can be stamped on the same booklet , even if
it is a ten year renewal.
These, Sir, are some of the ideas we discussed. I look
forward to your feedback and perhaps we can revise these to
reflect some ground realities.
Some of these ideas can be used in combination. As
mentioned they are building blocks to be fitted as
perceived useful.
I look forward to your inputs.
With best regards.
Sincerely
Saurabh Sharma
