By IANS,
Kolkata : For timely and transparent passport-related services in rural areas and the northeast, the external affairs ministry will set up 16 Passport Seva Laghu Kendras (PSLKs) by the end of next year, an official said Tuesday.
Unlike the existing Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs), the PSLKs would not be under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode but operated by the government.
“After the full roll-out of the planned 77 PSKs, it has been felt that some regions, especially the northeastern states were inadequately covered. So it has been decided to establish 16 PSLKs across the country by the end of next year,” Chief Passport Officer Muktesh Kumar Pardeshi said here.
He said that the ministry was also mulling setting up more PSKs.
“Annually, seven million passports are issued and the year-on-year growth rate is 10 percent. Keeping this in mind the government is mulling setting up more such kendras,” said Pardeshi.
Pardeshi, who Tuesday met West Bengal government officials, said the state was behind all other states in providing timely police verification of passport applicants.
“The average time taken for police verification of passport applications in West Bengal is more than three months and in that regard it is, perhaps, behind all other states,” said Pardeshi.
“States like Bihar and Uttarakhand have enacted laws providing penalty for police officers who delay the verification process. Many other sates are following suit and West Bengal also should pass such a law,” said Pardeshi.
The ministry has set up a benchmark of three weeks as the ideal time for police verification of a passport applicant, he said.