Lok Sabha Question No. 198 (STARRED), answered on 2017-03-15
Subject: Passports through Post Offices
Ministry: EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Asked by: KOTHA PRABHAKAR REDDY, SURESH KODIKUNNIL

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.198 TO BE ANSWERED ON 15.03.2017

## PASSPORTS THROUGH POST OFFICES

- *198.   SHRI PRABHAKAR REDDY KOTHA: SHRI KODIKUNNIL SURESH:

Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the    Government  has  finalised  the  methodology  to issue  passports  through  post  offices  and  if  so,  the  details thereof, State-wise;
- (b) the  details  of  funds  and  infrastructure  required/allocated  for the project;
- (c) the  details  of  hurdles  being  faced  in  implementation  of  the aforesaid project; and
- (d) whether a centralised system for issue of passports is being introduced and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS (SHRIMATI SUSHMA SWARAJ)

- (a) to (d) A statement is laid on the table of the House.

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## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 198 REGARDING 'PASSPORTS THROUGH POST OFFICES' FOR ANSWER ON 15.03.2017

(a) Yes.  The  Ministry  of  External  Affairs  (MEA)  and  the  Department  of  Posts (DOP) have decided to utilize the Head Post Offices (HPO) in the various States as Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) for delivering passport related services to the citizens of the country. The pilot projects for this joint venture between MEA and DOP was inaugurated on 25 January, 2017 at the Post Offices at Mysuru in Karnataka and  at  Dahod  in  Gujarat.  The  POPSK  at  these  two  places  have  been  running successfully since their inauguration. With the successful operationalization of these two pilot projects, the Government has now decided to scale up this programme by opening 64 more POPSKs, as per the list attached at Annexure.

Out of the 64 POPSK at Annexure, ten POPSKs at Asansol, Kavaratti, Kota, Muzaffarpur, Pathanamthitta, Raiganj, Rourkela, Salem, Udhampur and Vidisha have since been inaugurated taking the total number of POPSKs as on date to twelve.

The  POPSK  would  be  functioning  like  the  other  existing  Passport  Seva Kendra (PSK). The process of issuing passports will not change after the opening of the  POPSK.  Applicants,  who  apply  for  their  passports  online  through  the  passport portal,  can  now  schedule  an  appointment  and  then  visit  the  designated  POPSK  to complete the formalities similar to those at the PSK necessary prior to the issue of the passport.  The  photographs,  biometrics  and  the  supporting  documents  would  be electronically  captured  at  the  POPSK  and  the  applicant  will  not  have  to  revisit  the POPSK prior to the issue of the Passport.

(b) The Department of Posts would provide the space necessary for the setting up of the POPSK in the Post Offices. MEA would provide the IT infrastructure and NonIT  equipment  including  furniture  and  furnishings,  WAN  Bandwidth  (primary  and backup link) and Local Area Network necessary to operationalize the POPSK. The estimated cost for setting up a POPSK for processing approximately 100 applications per day would be as follow:

| Particulars          |   Amount (Rs. Lakhs) |
|----------------------|----------------------|
| Non-recurring:       |                   30 |
| Recurring per month: |                    4 |

Funds would be made available in the budget of the CPV Division and the budget of the Passport Offices under whose jurisdiction the POPSK are to be set-up for setting up the POPSK.

- (c) The difficulty in the setting-up of the POPSK is the shortage of personnel in the Central Passport Organisation (CPO), particularly those at the Superintendent and Senior  Superintendent  levels  who  function  as  Passport  Granting  Officers  (PGO). There is also shortage of Assistant Superintendents (AS), Senior Passport Assistants (SPA),  Junior  Passport  Assistants  (JPA)  who  function  as  the  Verification  Officers (VO).    DOP  have  expressed  their  willingness  to  deploy  personnel  to  serve  as Verification  Officer  (VO)  and  Granting  Officer  (GO)  for  passports  at  the  POPSK. These personnel would have to be, however, trained before they start functioning as VO and GO.
- (d) The Passport Seva Project,  currently  being  used,  is  a  centralized  system  for issue  of  passports.  The  Post  Office  Passport  Seva  Kendra  (POPSK)  would  be connected to the PSP centralized system for processing of applications submitted at POPSK.  The  printing  and  dispatch  of  the  Passports  for  applications,  which  are received at POPSK, will be carried out at the Regional Passport Office (RPO) under whose jurisdiction the POPSK would function.

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## ANNEXURE

|   S.N. | Locations        | State               |   S.N. | Locations            | State          |
|--------|------------------|---------------------|--------|----------------------|----------------|
|      1 | Kurnool          | Andhra Pradesh      |     33 | Gulbarga             | Karnataka      |
|      2 | Kadappa          | Andhra Pradesh      |     34 | Pathanamthitta       | Kerala         |
|      3 | Silchar          | Assam               |     35 | Kasargod             | Kerala         |
|      4 | Purnia           | Bihar               |     36 | Kavaratti            | Lakshadweep    |
|      5 | Gopalganj        | Bihar               |     37 | Gwalior              | Madhya Pradesh |
|      6 | Muzaffarpur      | Bihar               |     38 | Satna                | Madhya Pradesh |
|      7 | Bhagalpur        | Bihar               |     39 | Jabalpur             | Madhya Pradesh |
|      8 | Siwan            | Bihar               |     40 | Vidisha              | Madhya Pradesh |
|      9 | Surguja          | Chhattisgarh        |     41 | Aurangabad           | Maharashtra    |
|     10 | Daman            | Daman               |     42 | Beed                 | Maharashtra    |
|     11 | Diu              | Diu                 |     43 | Ghatkopar            | Maharashtra    |
|     12 | Silvasa          | Dadra &Nagar Haveli |     44 | Mumbai North Central | Maharashtra    |
|     13 | East Delhi       | Delhi               |     45 | Mumbai South Central | Maharashtra    |
|     14 | Noth East Delhi  | Delhi               |     46 | Jalgaon              | Maharashtra    |
|     15 | North West Delhi | Delhi               |     47 | Kolhapur             | Maharashtra    |
|     16 | South Delhi      | Delhi               |     48 | Pimpri Chinchwad     | Maharashtra    |
|     17 | West Delhi       | Delhi               |     49 | Rourkela             | Odisha         |
|     18 | Bhuj             | Gujarat             |     50 | Sambalpur            | Odisha         |
|     19 | Palanpur         | Gujarat             |     51 | Koraput              | Odisha         |
|     20 | Hisar            | Haryana             |     52 | Kota                 | Rajasthan      |
|     21 | Karnal           | Haryana             |     53 | Jaisalmer            | Rajasthan      |
|     22 | Faridabad        | Haryana             |     54 | Jhunjhunu            | Rajasthan      |
|     23 | Palampur         | Himachal Pradesh    |     55 | Bikaner              | Rajasthan      |
|     24 | Hamirpur         | Himachal Pradesh    |     56 | Jhalawar             | Rajasthan      |
|     25 | Leh              | J&K                 |     57 | Salem                | Tamil Nadu     |
|     26 | Udhampur         | J&K                 |     58 | Vellore              | Tamil Nadu     |
|     27 | Jamshedpur       | Jharkhand           |     59 | Mehbubnagar          | Telangana      |
|     28 | Dhanbad          | Jharkhand           |     60 | Warangal             | Telangana      |
|     29 | Deoghar          | Jharkhand           |     61 | North Kolkata        | West Bengal    |
|     30 | Belgaum          | Karnataka           |     62 | Asansol              | West Bengal    |
|     31 | Devangere        | Karnataka           |     63 | Nadia                | West Bengal    |
|     32 | Hassan           | Karnataka           |     64 | Raiganj              | West Bengal    |

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