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Police check for passport may take just 8 days in future

[email protected] (TNN)
February 21, 2016

The humble passport is creating its own little revolution in governance in India. Like the landline telephone of yore, the acquisition of a passport signalled a rise in social status a few decades ago because you had jumped through several hoops to get it.passport

Over the past few years, Indians have found it easier to get a new passport or have one renewed at computerised seva kendras, which have taken some of the tension out of the exercise, and serve 50,000 people a day. The passport, like the Aadhar card, is writing its own governance script, and government departments are adapting to keep up.

By the end of 2015, 6.33 crore Indian citizens possessed valid passports, up from 5.19 crore in 2013. This week, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) expanded its footprint with a passport kendra in Arunachal Pradesh. "We now cover the entire country," says Muktesh Pardeshi, chief passport officer.

Appointed India's next ambassador to Mexico, Pardeshi has helmed the MEA's passport campaign for the past five years. Having spruced up the front end of the passport service system by tying up with TCS and boosting manpower, Pardeshi says they are now tackling the back end. The weakest link here is police verification, but it is also the most critical component of the passport issuance process.

We all know how tough that can get — a deadly cocktail of inefficiency and corruption. Last year, MEA and states held a brainstorming session to fix this. In the past months, technology, coercion and political push has succeeded in integrating 683 of 731 police districts in India with the passport system online.

This means police verification documents travel from passport offices to the police stations electronically, and return the same way. Police stations can no longer say, "document kho gaya" or no one was available to carry the papers. An e-trail shows how long the police station sat on it. This is very different from the days when you pleaded with the police station, or looked for someone who could "influence" them and found yourself funding a lot of "chai-paani" along the way.

Directors general of police in all the states have been provided with electronic dashboards to track progress, and pull up errant officials. In 2015, this brought the time taken for verification down to 34 days from 49 in 2013 despite the fact that passport applications shot by 40% across the country. This year, it is expected to come down to eight days. "We will soon bring J&K and Nagaland police districts within this ambit," Pardeshi said.

The revolution has been most visible in Uttar Pradesh. Over the past couple of years that the new system has been in practice, UP has jumped from issuing 6.5 lakh passports to 13 lakh passports a year. In 2015, UP, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala issued more than 10 lakh passports each. At the five-lakh-mark are West Bengal, Telangana, Gujarat, Karnataka and Punjab, while the highest growth was seen in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura.

MEA has reduced the categories of passports that need pre-police verification, and is aiming for post-verification for the bulk of Indian citizens. So, if you submit your Aadhaar, voter and PAN cards and a signed affidavit, you can pick up your passport and travel, and get verified after you return.

By August 2015, MEA had completely integrated the Aadhaar database with the passport system. This has taken the passport issuance process closer to a biometric verification.
MEA is also pushing for the early rollout of the crime and criminal tracking and networking system (CCTNS), which will be able to verify if you have a criminal record.

But police verification can never be done away with, so the MEA has developed an app for the police. Constables will receive their assignments on the app, which is GPS-enabled, and they can take photographs, scan documents and mail them to their bosses.
Commissioners are equipped to assign services and check the verification before reverting to the RPO. The app is connected to an online SMS system which seeks instant citizen feedback, keeping policemen on their toes. Seems like it's time for everyone to fly.

Comments

Mohammed
 - 
Monday, 22 Feb 2016

Really sad that Inside passport office in Bangalore, they started imposing fines on poor people. The Last Counter officials dont know to talk Hindi, English, or Kannada in Bangalore Passport Office. They can talk only in Tamil. Recently My Relative who was labour was fined for Rs.5000/- & reason was untold. The lady officer who fined him was not ready to tell reason at all.
Really sad there is nobody inside the passport office to help poor people who want to go out of country for their livelihood. The first two counters inside the bangalore office are from TCS. The last counter is Ministry official who are so old, who cant even operate the computers perfectly. The ministry is misusing our Tax funds in wrong manner. The poor people are fined for no reason.

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News Network
January 12,2020

Kochi, Jan 12: Golden Kayaloram, the fourth and last Maradu residential apartment was razed by controlled implosion in Kochi on Sunday afternoon as per the directions of the Supreme Court.

The building came crashing down, leaving the entire area in a cover of white smoke.

Earlier today, Jain Coral Cove, the apartment having the maximum number of housing units among the illegally built buildings, was razed down at 11:02 am.

The authorities coordinated the operations from a control room set up at the office of the Inland Waterways Authority of India.

As per municipal records, there were 122 housing units in Jain Coral Cove and 41 in Golden Kayaloram.

The prohibitory orders that were clamped in the area will remain imposed for the day. The district administration on Saturday imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

On Saturday, the 19-floor H2O Holy Faith apartment complex with 90 flats and the Alfa Serene complex with twin towers were demolished at 11 am and 11:05 am respectively.

The buildings are razed for violating the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules. The directions in this regard were passed by the Supreme Court last year. 

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News Network
January 20,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 20: The suspense over chief minister BS Yediyurappa expanding his council of ministers is set to continue until after he returns from his trip to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

Yediyurappa, who heads a 10-member delegation to the Swiss ski resort, left on Sunday. Prior to his departure, he told reporters cabinet expansion will happen only after his return on January 24. “I discussed the issue with [BJP] national president Amit Shah for 30 minutes or so. He has given a positive response and I will expand the cabinet within two days after my return,” Yediyurappa said.

But sources said Shah, during his visit to Hubballi on Saturday, had indicated the exercise is likely to be delayed further as the central leadership will be busy with the assembly elections in Delhi. “Indications are there is no possibility of expanding the cabinet until February 11 when the electoral process for the Delhi elections ends,” said a source.

The development has obviously left ministerial aspirants, especially defectors from Congress and JD(S) who were re-elected on BJP tickets last month, restive. Moreover, while Yediyurappa has promised ministerial berths to all MLAs who switched to the BJP from Congress and JD(S), sources say Shah is only in favour of inducting six defectors (11 of whom won MLA seats on saffron party tickets in the byelections) into the cabinet.

“Shah’s advice to Yediyurappa is to strike a balance between defectors and loyalists. His concern is loyalists should not be left disappointed, while justice should be served to the defectors as well,” said a BJP functionary.

Meanwhile, KS Eshwarappa, senior party functionary and minister for rural development, said the BJP would never let down the defectors. “The party is indebted to them and I am sure they will all be rewarded,” he said.

BC Patil, one of the defectors, said some of them had met Shah in one-on-one meetings in Hubballi. “It was more a courtesy call and the issue of cabinet expansion didn’t come up during the meeting,” he said.

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News Network
August 2,2020

Bengaluru, Aug 2: Within a year of returning to power for the fourth time as Chief Minister in Karnataka, septuagenarian B.S. Yediyurappa has consolidated his position in the ruling BJP to stay the course till the next Assembly elections in mid-2023.

"A combination of factors helped Yediyurappa to consolidate and stay the course for the remaining term of his office to ensure the saffron party retains power in the state though he is unlikely to stake claim for the chief minister's post again as he would be 80 years old by 2023," a party source told news agency here.

Since the 77-year-old seasoned politician assumed office on July 26, 2019, the first year has been tumultuous for him, as he had go through a "trial by fire" what with the party's mighty high command and detractors testing his patience in the face of natural calamities like drought, floods and the Covid pandemic.

The first 7-8 months of the term were spent in tackling drought and floods, winning 12 of the 15 by-elections in December to secure a majority for the ruling party in the lower house and expanding the cabinet in February.

Even as Yediyurappa was settling down to seriously govern after presenting the state budget for fiscal 2020-21 in early March, the coronavirus outbreak overwhelmed him, as the pandemic spread and wreaked havoc, disrupting life, livelihood, economic growth and development.

"While the emphatic victory in the by-elections ensured the government's stability till the assembly term up to mid-2023, the second cabinet expansion on February 6 posed a challenge to Yediyurappa, as he could induct only 10 of the 12 MLAs who defected from the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and won the by-elections, triggering a revolt in the party by the loyalists left out of the ministry," the source recalled.

Though Yeddiyurappa has been leading the battle against the virus from day 1 and initially succeeded in controlling it from spreading during the extended lockdown till May 31, reopening the state under Unlock since June has undone the gains, as positive cases shot up to 1,29,287 so far, including 73,219 in Bengaluru after 53,648 recovered from across the state till date, while 2,412 succumbed to the deadly disease since March 9.

"For a state of 7 crore population, the data reveals that the pandemic has been fought on war-footing to contain it from spreading in all the 30 districts, although there are no signs of it going away till a vaccine is found. The chief minister has been trying to balance unlocking the state and containing the infection," a member of the health task force told IANS.

With six cabinet posts in the 34-member ministry being vacant, filling them will be a daunting task for Yediyurappa, as at least 20 legislators, including 5-6 newly elected turncoats and party's veterans are lobbying to become ministers at any cost.

By appointing 20 party legislators as heads of state-run board and corporations, nominating 5 as members of the state legislative council, including JD-S defector A.H. Vishwanath in July and getting 2 Congress defectors R. Shankar and M.T.B. Nagaraj elected as MLCs in June with 2 others, Yediyurappa ensured that these lawmakers would not be in the reckoning for the 6 cabinet posts, as dozen MLAs are already pitching for them.

Nagaraj and Vishwanath lost in the December 5 by-elections, while Shankar was not given a ticket to contest in the by-poll but was assured of making him an MLC with another disgruntled member C.P. Yogeshwar, who lost in the 2018 May assembly polls to JD-S leader and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of the 14-month-old JD-S and Congress coalition government from May 23, 2018 to July 23, 2019.

Resignations of 17 rebels, including 14 from the Congress and 3 from the JD-S led to the fall of the coalition government, as Kumaraswamy lost the majority in the 225-member assembly on July 23, 2019 in their absence.

Though Yediyurappa led the party to win 105 seats in the 2018 assembly elections and formed a government on May 17, 2018, he resigned 3 days later on May 19, 2018, as he fell 8-9 seats short of the halfway mark (113) for a simple majority in the lower house.

In a post-poll alliance, the JD-S and the Congress formed the coalition government to keep the BJP out of power in May 2018, after the assembly elections gave split verdict and the Congress lost power then.

"The record victory of the ruling party in the May 2019 general elections, when 25 of its 27 contestants won out of 28 Lok Sabha seats from the state, reinforced the popular belief that Yediyurappa is the party's mascot in winning elections and an unquestionable leader of the politically dominant Lingayats in the state," the source pointed out.

When Yediyurappa left the BJP and floated a regional outfit (Karnataka Janata Party) in January 2013, he delivered a body blow to the BJP in the May 2013 state assembly polls, as the votes got split and was defeated by then Congress.

"Besides the party's high command, everyone in the party's state unit, including leaders and cadres are aware of Yediyurappa's popularity across the state, as has the wherewithal to connect with masses and win elections," the source added.

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