BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has decided to open passport service centres in
all the 800 district head post offices across the country in two years'
time to increase people's access to the facility, especially in remote
areas.
Making the announcement here today, minister of state for External
Affairs V K Singh said, "150 post office passport seva kendras are being
opened this year and within two years all the 800 head post offices in
all the districts would be in place."
"We have decided to ensure that no citizen is made to travel long
distances for a passport. People in far-flung areas of the country find
it difficult to obtain passports and redress passport-related
grievances," Mr Singh said.
The step has been initiated through a joint effort by the ministry of
external affairs and the department of posts to deliver passport-related
services to the people.
Passport seva kendras have already been launched in several district head post offices in various parts of the country.
"It has been decided to utilise head post offices as front offices for
rendering passport services under this novel programme," he said.
The government has decided to scale up the programme following
successful operationalisation of two pilot projects taken up initially.
Apart from expanding the passport services and giving a wider reach,
procedures for obtaining passports have also been substantially
simplified, the minister said.
"In addition, the entire process of getting passports has been made
transparent, while middlemen and dalals have been done away with," Mr
Singh said.
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