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No entry for agents to passport offices

Staff Reporter

In the wake of complaints about interference

MALAPPURAM: Passport authorities here have started an operation aimed at driving agents out of the passport office. Passport Officer K. Muraleedharan, who recently assumed office, said here on Wednesday that travel agents would not be allowed to display boards offering passport-related services.

Mr. Muraleedharan, who was Second Secretary (Community Welfare) at the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, said all passport-related boards displayed by travel agents would be removed.

He said it was illegal to display such boards. There were complaints from various quarters about the increasing presence and interference of travel agents at the passport office here. The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) had staged a march to the passport office in protest against touting.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed had assured, while inaugurating the website of the Malappuram Passport Office here in June, of stringent action against touts. Mr. Muraleedharan exhorted passport applicants to come to the Passport Office directly.

He said despite a severe shortage of staff, the office was providing all help to the applicants. Passport information will soon be made available by SMS, he said. Similarly, interactive voice response system (IVRS) will also be introduced at the Malappuram passport office, he said.

Mr. Muraleedharan said a record 19,541 passports were issued in June. In May, the number of passports issued was 8,762. The number of passport applications in June was 10,619. It was 11,950 in May. The passport office here gets, on an average, 750 applications a day including online registrations and the applications through the passport cell at the office of the District Superintendent of Police.

The passport office here catered to the people belonging to Malappuram and Palakkad districts. Mr. Muraleedharan said 39 employees, including officers, were working at the passport office here against a required strength of 57.

Police verification process was made speedy now with the Police Superintendents of Malappuram and Palakkad transferring their reports electronically to the passport office. Malappuram was the first centre in the State to receive electronic verification reports from the police. Similarly, the passport office here was the first in the country to implement Java interface as part of going online.

Malappuram Passport Office has issued more than one lakh passports since it started functioning on August 28, 2006. It earned more than Rs.22 crore in less than a year.

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