MEA eases verification rules for passports

TIRUCHY:The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has further liberalised police verification for issue of passports and has launched a mobile app to cut delays in submission of police verification (PV) report. In a release here on Friday, regional passport officer S LIngasamy said that police verification has been an integral part of the passport issue process since its inception. Now, MEA has streamlined the police verification system by digitally integrating 685 of 731 police districts in the country.

This has led to overall reduction in the number of days taken to complete police verification to 34 days in 2015, as against 42 days in 2014 and 49 days in 2013, he said. To further improve and liberalise PV procedure for passport  issue, government has decided that henceforth, normal passport applications of all first time applicants furnishing ‘Aadhaar’, electoral photo identity card (EPIC), permanent account number (PAN) card and an affidavit in the format of Annex-I will be processed on post-police verification basis, enabling faster issue of passports without payment of any additional fees, subject to successful online validation of the Aadhaar number.

In addition, EPIC and PAN may also be validated, if need be, from the respective databases, he said. In addition to the above, the Ministry has also launched a passport police app for speedy submission of police verification report (PV). The app will facilitate field level verification officers to directly capture the PV report into the system digitally. This will further reduce the desired time limit to 21 days, he said, adding, procedure for getting appointments has also been rationalised to cut delays for applicants.