By Devirupa Mitra, IANS
New Delhi : The Indian government has decided to stop dispatching blank passports to its missions abroad after hundreds went missing, inviting flak from the country’s official auditor.
“We will now have a central establishment to deal with fresh passports to be issued by our missions abroad. A central printing facility will be set up at the Patiala House here for this,” said a senior foreign office official.
“The main concern is how long it will take (to send abroad a passport from Delhi). Our assessment is it should take no more than four days for delivery. In urgent cases, our citizens (Indians) will get emergency travel certificates to get back home,” the official told IANS.
In a report tabled in parliament in May, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said that an unprecedented number of blank passports and visa stickers went missing while in transit to 16 Indian missions from the India Security Press (ISP) at Nasik.
A few days later some 200 blank passports were found abandoned in a garbage dump and a water tank at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
The external affairs ministry is now in the final stages of implementing a two-step plan to plug the loopholes.
So far ISP used to send empty passports and visa stickers to Indian missions. The delivery was by private couriers, but there was never any direct supervision to determine if the booklets actually reached their destination.
In the first step, no blank passport booklets will be sent abroad. Instead, the Indian embassies and consulates will send the details of applicants to the headquarters in New Delhi seeking replacements for stolen or missing passports.
“Security wise, a blank booklet can be more easily misused, compared to a filled-in passport,” said an official in New Delhi’s Regional Passport Office.
Another advantage of this plan is that it will put an end to hand-written passports – which is the practice among as many as 140 Indian missions. Regional Passport Offices have stopped issuing hand-written passports.
“The new system will help India follow the directions of the International Civil Aviation Organisation to stop distributing hand-written passports by April 2009,” the foreign office official said.
The overwhelming numbers of applicants for new passports abroad are usually Indians who have lost their documents, due to theft or negligence, explain ministry officials.
Under the previous system, Indian missions could issue new passports without delay. “That will no longer be possible when the new system is put in place,” said the official.
“We will also strengthen the delivery system as the second line of defence against pilferage.”
A web-enabled software is being put online to connect the ministry, ISP, the Regional Passport Offices and the postal department, which has been roped in for the first time to deliver the passports, replacing the private couriers.
“We plan to include safeguards in the system, so that if a single passport does not reach its destination, there will be immediate alert sent out everywhere.”
The official said the software to monitor the delivery of passports still needed tests. “We hope to be ready by the end of this year.”