Passport Melas

Indian Military Veterans

            The minister of external affairs Shrimati Sushma Swaraj in a Lok Sabha statement laid on the table of the House, on passport melas informed the house that the Government is aware of the difficulties faced by applicants at a few locations for not getting appointments promptly due to heavy demand for passport services which have increased by 30% in the last 2 years. It had also been observed that many of the applicants were not turning up at the Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) despite scheduling valid appointments. This was not only resulting in lesser utilization of processing capacity of the PSKs, but was also causing denial of appointments to other genuine applicants. To meet heavy demand for passport services, the Government has been organizing Passport Melas at weekends at PSKs as per need.  ‘Walk-in’  facility   has  also been  allowed  for certain categories of services and citizens such as  Tatkaal  passports,  Police Clearance Certificates  and  issue of new booklets where pages have been exhausted, Senior citizens (above 60 years) and  differently-abled persons. In order to provide closer and speedier passport services to people located far away from PSKs, Passport Seva Camps are also being organized at various locations in the country. To minimise ‘no-shows’, the Government has introduced online advance payment of passport fees since 5^th July, 2013.

These measures have resulted in substantial improvement in availability of appointments. As on 15^thJuly, 2015, out of 82 PSKs, appointments were available in 59 PSKs within 7 calendar days, in 11 PSKs within 8 to 14 days, in 5 PSKs within 15 to 21 days and in 7 PSKs from 22 to 30 days.  Comparatively, as on 1^st September, 2014, out of 77 PSKs operational at that time, appointments were available in 29 PSKs within 7 days, in 11 PSKs within 8 to 14 days, in 11 PSKs within 15 to 21 days, in 10 PSKs between 22 to 30 days and in 16 PSKs beyond   30 days.

From 1^st  January to 30^th June, 2015, 252 Passport Melas have been organized  on weekends  by various Passport Offices where 1,73,779 passport applications have been processed. The Passport Melas would continue to be held by the concerned Passport Offices on need basis.  Annexure as follows:

Passport Office	Number of Melas	Applications Received	Passports Issued
Ahmedabad	26	15,654	11,928
Amritsar	8	4,582	4,411
Bangalore	19	18,672	17,305
Bareilly	4	2,472	2,327
Bhopal	2	1,459	791
Chandigarh	8	5,900	5,366
Chennai	1	734	715
Cochin	4	2,336	1,742
Coimbatore	2	967	908
Dehradun	3	930	886
Delhi	20	10,838	8,578
Ghaziabad	4	3,020	2,148
Goa	1	113	106
Hyderabad	18	9,332	8,460
Jaipur	9	2,536	2,356
Jalandhar	6	2,190	2,154
Jammu	3	571	372
Kolkata	14	18,314	10,474
Lucknow	26	19,680	15,826
Madurai	3	1,929	1,825
Malappuram	5	5,895	5,521
Mumbai	12	7,055	6,553
Nagpur	4	2,578	2,305
Patna	1	454	369
Pune	11	11,517	8,506
Raipur	2	478	366
Ranchi	2	512	266
Srinagar	4	1,179	700
Surat	10	7,549	7,009
Thane	15	12,517	8,669
Trivandrum	5	1,816	1,772
Total	252	1,73,779	1,40,714

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YSK/Uma

(Release ID :123542)