Lok Sabha Question No. 4432 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-29
Subject: Delay in Issuance of Passports
Ministry: EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Asked by: RAJU ALIAS DEVAPPA ANNA SHETTI, RAMCHARAN BOHARA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.4432 TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.03.2017

## DELAY IN ISSUANCE OF PASSPORTS

† 4432.

SHRI RAJU SHETTY:

SHRI RAM CHARAN BOHRA:

Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the extant procedure for issuing passports to the applicants  by  the  Government  along  with  the  time  taken  in this regard;
- (b) the  year-wise  and  Passport  Office-wise  number  of  passports issued by passport offices in the country during the last three years;
- (c) the  details  of  difficulties  and  hurdles  that  causes  delay  in issuing of passports;
- (d) the efforts made by the Government to solve the said problem; and
- (e) the  extent  to  which  success  has  been  achieved  as  a  result thereof?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS [GEN. (DR) V. K. SINGH (RETD)]

- (a)   (i) With  the  implementation  of  the  Passport  Seva  Project, the  procedure    of  passport  issuance  has  become  very  transparent and easy. Under this system, the applicants are required to apply for their passports online, upload relevant documents, make  the payment  online  through  debit/credit  card  or  SBI  net-banking/SBI Challan,  schedule  an  appointment  and  then  visit  the  designated Passport Seva Kendra (PSK). A user friendly portal has been made available.  When  an  applicant  visits  the  PSK,  an  Electronic  Queue Management  System  (EQMS)  working  on  the  principle  of  First-in

First-out is available at all PSKs to monitor the flow of applicants. After  completing  the  non-sovereign  activities  by  the  staff  of  the Service  Provider,  applicants  move  to  the  Passport  Office  Staff  for verification of documents and granting of passports. The shortcoming(s),  if  any,  in  the  documentation,  is  conveyed  to  the applicant  there  itself.  Exit  letter  giving  position  of  the  application ensuring fairness is provided to the applicant at the time of exit. The applicants  can  track  the  status  of  their  applications  themselves through  portal  and  also  SMS  services.  In  the  current  system  of passport issuance, there is no manual intervention at any stage, and the complete process is digitally flown with re-engineered process through a single visit clearance.

- (ii) The Ministry endeavours to issue passports within the following  timeframe  provided  in  the  'Citizen's  Charter  of  Central Passport Organisation of the Ministry of External Affairs for Issuance and Delivery of Passport Services 2016'. Timeframe as per Citizen Charter is given below:-
- (b) The year-wise and Passport Office-wise number of passports issued by passport offices in the country during the last three years is given at Annexure.
- (c) The time taken for issue of passports has been progressively reduced in recent years. There has also been considerable improvement in  the  last  two  years  in  getting  appointments  at  the PSKs.  However, the process for issuance of passports sometimes becomes longer due to the following reasons:
- -Late receipt of police verification  reports  beyond  the stipulated time of 21 days;
- -Receipt of incomplete police reports; and
- -Late submission of requisite documents by the applicants.

| Nature of Service                                                                                                           | Indicative Timelines                       | Remarks                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Fresh (First Time) Passport (Police Verification required before issuance)                                                  | Up to 30 working days [PV period excluded] | From the date of receipt of complete documentation and enrolment and subject to the satisfaction of PIA and receipt of clear Police Verification Report                                                        |
| Fresh (First Time) Passport {PV required after issuance or where PV is not required} Tatkaal Government/ PSU employees etc. | Up to 7 working days                       | From the date of receipt of complete documentation and enrolment and subject to confirmation of authenticity of Verification Certificate/Identity Certificate/No Objection Certificate and satisfaction of PIA |
| Re-issue of passport on expiry or on exhaustion of                                                                          | Up to 7 working days (In cases where       | From the date of receipt of complete documentation and                                                                                                                                                         |

| Visa pages                                                                                                                         | pre-police verification is not required)                                                                                                                 | enrolment and subject to the satisfaction of PIA provided there is no change in personal particulars                                          |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Re-issue of passport due to (a) change in personal particulars, and/or (b) in lieu of lost/stolen/damaged /mutilated passport      | Up to 7 working days in cases where pre-police verification is not required and up to 30 working days in cases where PV is required [PV period excluded] | From the date of receipt of complete documentation and enrolment and subject to the satisfaction of PIA and requisite verification/clearances |
| Miscellaneous Services like Police Clearance Certificate, Surrender Certificate or any miscellaneous certificate based on passport | Up to 3 working days (In cases where police verification is not required)                                                                                | From the date of receipt of complete documentation and enrolment and subject to the satisfaction of PIA and requisite verification/clearances |

(d) & (e)   (i) The Ministry has taken various measures to reduce  the  time  taken  in  completion  of  Police  Verification  Report (PVR)  for  expeditious  issuance  of  Passports.  The  number  of  days taken  in  PVR  submission  is  continuously  improving  and  constant efforts  are  being  made  to  meet  the  desired  timeline  of  21  days. During the calendar year 2016, the average time taken by State/Union Territories for submission of Police Verification Report (PVR) to issue fresh passports has reduced to 29 days from 34 days in  2015  and    42  days  in  2014  .  During  2016,  some  of  the  State/UT Police  completed  the  police  verification  within  two  weeks  like Telangana (5 days), Andhra Pradesh (10 days), Chandigarh (12 days), Goa (13 days), and Delhi (14 days).

(ii) The  Ministry  engages  closely  with  the  Police  Departments across States/UTs to speed up police verification. To encourage the State/UT police for expeditious submission  of PVR  related to Passport Services, the Ministry has made provision for reimbursement of a fixed amount to the State/UT Police authorities. Before, 1st July 2014, the PV reports received within 21 days were reimbursed at the rate of Rs.100/- per application which has since been enhanced to Rs.150/- with effect from 1st July, 2014. In order to further ease and expedite the issuance of the PVR, the number of questions asked in the questionnaire has also been reduced from 12 to 9 for police verification.

(iii) The  Ministry  has  launched  mPassport  Police  App  in  January 2016  for  speedy  submission  of  Police  Verification  Report.  The application  has  facilitated  the  field  level  verification  officers  to directly capture the PVR into the system digitally. With the launch of this  Application,  the  need  to  download  and  print  the  physical Personal  Particular  Form  and  Questionnaire  is  no  longer  required resulting  in  paperless  end-to-end  digital  flow  of  the  PVR  process, resulting in further reduction in the time required for completion of PVR, within the desired time limit of 21 days.

These  measures  have  simplified  the  process  of  passport issuance and reduced the difficulties faced by the applicants.

*****

ANNEXURE

| List of Passports issued   | List of Passports issued   | List of Passports issued   | List of Passports issued   |
|----------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------------|----------------------------|
| RPO                        | Passport Issued            | Passport Issued            | Passport Issued            |
|                            | 2014                       | 2015                       | 2016                       |
| Ahmedabad                  | 4,14,869                   | 5,65,507                   | 5,30,335                   |
| Amritsar                   | 1,05,659                   | 1,35,863                   | 1,25,910                   |
| Bangalore                  | 5,24,617                   | 6,32,889                   | 6,44,342                   |
| Bareilly                   | 95,810                     | 1,72,940                   | 1,10,789                   |
| Bhopal                     | 1,43,303                   | 1,64,576                   | 1,46,722                   |
| Bhubaneswar                | 94,472                     | 1,07,853                   | 1,07,667                   |
| Chandigarh                 | 3,88,790                   | 4,63,161                   | 4,30,206                   |
| Chennai                    | 3,88,302                   | 4,20,641                   | 4,17,495                   |
| Cochin                     | 3,28,410                   | 4,20,293                   | 4,07,209                   |
| Coimbatore                 | 1,16,010                   | 1,32,156                   | 1,33,476                   |
| Dehradun                   | 72,212                     | 84,314                     | 68,361                     |
| Delhi                      | 4,37,822                   | 5,05,844                   | 5,22,660                   |
| Ghaziabad                  | 1,48,843                   | 2,16,079                   | 2,08,390                   |
| Goa                        | 47,180                     | 51,573                     | 48,257                     |
| Guwahati                   | 64,192                     | 84,216                     | 98,244                     |
| Hyderabad                  | 6,87,554                   | 7,59,503                   | 6,67,680                   |
| Jaipur                     | 2,50,735                   | 3,10,976                   | 3,04,945                   |
| Jalandhar                  | 2,30,591                   | 2,85,818                   | 2,75,997                   |
| Jammu                      | 29,685                     | 40,351                     | 42,786                     |
| Kolkata                    | 4,08,052                   | 6,13,122                   | 5,31,288                   |
| Kozhikode                  | 2,87,645                   | 2,92,268                   | 2,84,685                   |
| Lucknow                    | 6,01,924                   | 9,47,600                   | 7,26,959                   |
| Madurai                    | 2,39,752                   | 2,63,627                   | 2,38,051                   |
| Malappuram                 | 2,45,880                   | 2,12,243                   | 2,01,741                   |
| Mumbai                     | 3,84,085                   | 4,58,264                   | 4,48,851                   |
| Nagpur                     | 92,964                     | 1,19,458                   | 1,16,612                   |
| Patna                      | 2,56,488                   | 3,65,614                   | 2,83,014                   |
| Pune                       | 2,14,511                   | 2,90,321                   | 2,80,753                   |
| Raipur                     | 34,535                     | 38,784                     | 41,932                     |
| Ranchi                     | 66,726                     | 84,362                     | 80,299                     |
| Shimla                     | 32,697                     | 42,630                     | 41,980                     |
| Srinagar                   | 56,413                     | 72,648                     | 59,148                     |
| Surat                      | 1,36,927                   | 1,85,973                   | 1,39,402                   |
| Thane                      | 2,34,431                   | 3,24,273                   | 3,15,275                   |
| Trichy                     | 2,10,585                   | 2,11,057                   | 1,87,879                   |
| Trivandrum                 | 2,01,439                   | 2,22,785                   | 2,02,552                   |
| Visakhapatnam              | 1,94,877                   | 2,31,841                   | 2,15,093                   |
| Total                      | 84,68,987                  | 1,05,31,423                | 96,86,985                  |

*****