Passport office blues dog applicants booked

This implies that applicants have to shell out Rs 10 for obtaining a photo-copy of the form which is supplied by the RPO free of cost. The use of photocopied passport application forms has been allowed since the supply from the government managed printing press at Nasik is deficient. A couple of photostat kiosks outside the RPO are doing brisk business.

Another factor is the increasing role of touts, who approach applicants claiming that they can get passports made out of turn through their contacts inside, as well as save the applicants the bother, for a "nominal fee". Fees, as per knowledgeable sources, begin from Rs 1,000 for a passport having 10-year validity and Rs 1,500 for the one having 20-year validity. Fees vary according to the paying capacity of the applicant and how quickly he wants the passport.

The menace of touts is evident from several complaints forwarded by the RPO to the police. "For the past two months I have forwarded about eight complaints received from applicants to police functionaries in the concerned districts," Jagdish Chand said. "About a dozen complaints have been received this year," he added.

Curtailing touts is difficult as they operate outside the jurisdiction of the RPO. They make their presence felt not only near the RPO building, but all over the region. Most of the complaints, RPO officials said, relate to touts taking money and then doing the disappearing act. "There have been instances when applicants visit the RPO to inquire about the status of their applications, only to learn that they were never deposited. However, not many people who have been duped come forward to lodge complaints," an official commented.

The RPO, however, denied that any of his staff connived with touts. Several applicants had alleged that some officials were hand in glove with the touts and even go to the extent of changing index cards of the applications.

Though the pendency of applications is down to 34,230 from about 50,000 in 1994, the typical complaint of applicants spoken to at the RPO is delay in issue of passports or procedural difficulties. Repeated trips to the RPO to pursue their case and being sent from one official to another without any tangible results is their woe.

Officials say that delays are on account of applications not being filled properly, where a communique has to be sent to the applicant, or some objections in the police verification reports. "On an average there are about 40 cases a month were the police report contains some objection or another," an official here commented. "Most of them are those connected to terrorist activity in Punjab, while the rest are routine criminal matters," he added.