
Bangalore, Aug 7: Getting an online appointment for your passport may get easy now. The Regional Passport Office on Tuesday announced it will accept online applications round the clock.
Until now, the online-appointment window opened at 6.30pm, and all slots were booked within minutes. And applicants had to wait for the next day to strike an appointment.
The round-the-clock facility will ensure fewer complaints of access problems and prevent applicants from approaching touts, said state regional passport officer (RPO) P S Karthigeyan. It is available at both BangaloreOne and KarnatakaOne centres. The walk-in time for applicants to seek appointment at passport seva kendras (PSKs) remains the same — from 9.30am to 11am.
The RPO said the number of monthly appointment slots has increased from 37,900 to 49,800 since December 2012. He spoke of a plan to increase the number of annual slots by 30,000. With this, Karnataka will be able to issue 4.8 lakh passports a year, up from 4 lakh.
Passports are currently delivered in 51 days, of which 35 days are set aside for police verification. Karthigeyan said: "Thanks to 'Direct to Thana' (a police-PSK project), police verification is cut to 21 days and passports are delivered in 35 days. Police personnel get Rs 100 in incentive if they process it faster."
Karnataka's Passport Seva Kendras have recorded a 32% rise in passport deliveries in the past six months. The average monthly passport despatch has increased from 28,700 to 39,500. July saw 49,800 appointments allotted and 40,000 passports delivered.
The RPO plans to make the waiting time for appointments uniform at all the Kendras. Now, it is 35 days at the Lalbagh facility and 10 days elsewhere. Officials said the Gulbarga Passport Application Centre will be upgraded to a mini-Kendra, and the external affairs ministry was examining other PSK proposals.
More e-features
* Pay online via credit or debit cards (Master and Visa), and internet banking via SBI facility. Applicants can use challan option on the website and deposit the amount in any SBI branch
* Android app mPassport Seva allows users to track passport status, locate PSKs and provides information
* To prevent smudging of photographs and data on passport booklets, the ministry has launched a tamper-proof letter-screen image or ghost-image security feature


The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
Comments
A number of people assume they are lowering their bills because they have
a coupon.
my page; Liza: http://newegg.com
Add new comment