Visakhapatnam: The people in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and a few other states in South India have a greater chance of receiving their passports within 15 days than those in the North, where it could take more than 15 days. This is as per the latest data from the ministry of external affairs.
Out of the 10 Regional Passport Offices (RPOs) that issued more than 50 per cent of the passports within 15 days in 2015 and 2016, six of them were from South India. RPOs in the North could issue only 25 per cent of their passports within 15 days. The major reasons for the difference in the time taken to issue passports in the South and in the North are the processing period and the time taken for the police verification. There is definitely something to learn from the South when it came to the issuing passports on time.
In India there are 37 RPOs across the country and one Consular, Passport and Visa Division (CPV) in Delhi that issue passports. The ministry of external affairs (MEA) says that 1.01 crore passports were issued in 2015 while in 2016, 97.06 lakh passports were disbursed. As expected, in 2016, the RPO in Lucknow issued the highest number of passports (7.26 lakhs), the RPO in Hyderabad, 6.67 lakhs and the RPO in Vizag, 2.15 lakh passports.
The MEA in 2016 came up with the Citizen’s Charter of Central Passport Organisation for Issuance and Delivery of Passport Services 2016.
The charter lists down service delivery standards and timelines for issuing various types of passports including re-issue. The standards indicate a maximum of 30 working days for the issue of a fresh passport (excluding the police verification period) in normal cases. But the MEA data says that there were wide variations in timeliness across states in the country.
The MEA data says that in 2015, over 50 per cent of the passports were issued within 15 days by the RPOs in the south whereas RPOs in the north managed to issue only 25 per cent of the passports within 15 days while RPOs in the East issued around 20 per cent of the passports within 15 days.
In 2016, the RPOs in the South and in the West issued over 50 per cent of the passports within 15 days and in the North, the percentage increased to 36 per cent from 25 per cent. Of the total 37 RPOs in the country, 9 RPOs issued over 50 per cent of the passports within 15 days in 2016 and of them six RPOs were from the South and in 2015, 10 RPOs issued more than 50 per cent of passports within 15 days of which six of them were from South India.
The Passport Officer, Vizag, NLP Choudhary said that RPO Vizag had disbursed over 80 per cent of the passports within 15 days in 2016 and in 2015, the percentage was 67.93. The appointment cycle for passport seekers at Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) under RPO Vizag had reduced from 20 days to 2 days. Hence Vizag RPO stood 3rd in the country in terms of issuing passports within 15 days, he added.
“In Vizag city the average time taken for the submission of police verification reports has come down to four days as we have tablets that are equipped and that use web-based verification. As there are very few delays in the police verification, RPO Vizag manages to issue more passports in a calendar year.” says ADCP (Special Branch) of Vizag Police Commissionerate, PV Ravi Kumar.
