The Hindu : Front Page : Passport seekers on the rise in Coimbatore

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 17, 2006

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Passport seekers on the rise in Coimbatore

V.S. Palaniappan

Delay in verification worries applicants

Coimbatore: This textile city, poised to become an Information Technology hub, is witnessing a sudden spurt of 35 per cent in the number of persons applying for passports (from January 1 to August 1, 2006 compared to the same period last year).

This comes at a time when many IT firms are setting up shops in the city. Enquiries with students who turned up with passport applications reveal that even at the time of campus interviews, software firms insist on the passport or the file number of the application. Jobs in software firms definitely involve frequent travel overseas, thus passport has become essential for employment.

Applications are received both at the District Passport Cell (DPC) and also at the Regional Passport Office, Chennai, from where they are forwarded for police verification. More than 65 per cent of the applications are said to be from students.

This has revived the long-pending demand for a regional passport office or at least a sub-office at Coimbatore to cater to the seven districts in western Tamil Nadu and a few northern districts of Kerala, say travel agents. With more and more passport applications pouring in, workload has increased in the police stations, prolonging the waiting time for the verification process. With just one or a maximum of two police personnel to do the verification in every station, the sudden spurt has actually led to a huge backlog, police sources say.

As for the plans to dispose these forms in 10 days the police take anywhere from 15 to 20 days to complete the verification. It takes 100 to 120 days for the applicants to receive a new passport.

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