The Hindu : Passports issued only after police verification: RPO

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 10, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Passports issued only after police verification: RPO

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Sept. 9. The Regional Passport Office has clarified that all passports are issued based on police verification reports and it has no independent field verification mechanism to check the antecedents of applicants.

Reacting to reports in a section of the media that a suspect in the recent Mumbai blast case was issued a passport by the Hyderabad Regional Passport Office, officers of the RPO said the passport was issued in 1999 based on the police clearance.

``It's not fair to put the blame on the RPO whenever a criminal or terrorist's files were opened for inspection,'' they said. The Regional Passport Officer reiterated that the Hyderabad RPO is being developed as a role model.

When the staff had been working overtime to clear the pendency and implementing many user-friendly measures such as facilitation counters to help the applicants, such irresponsible insinuations by some people would demotivate the staff, he said.

He also said that one could take prior appointment with the Public Relations Officer (Ph.No.27704689 and 27704414) instead of waiting for a long time in the queue and contact the facility counter enquiry Ph.No.27704646, 27704747, 27704685 or 27708585 to enquire about the status of his or her file without visiting the office.

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