All NE states to get passport seva kendras

FROM A CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, Oct 20: All the Northeast states will soon have their own passport seva kendras (PSKs). Disclosing this to The Sentinel, Joint Secretary and Chief Passport Officer in the Ministry of Exterl Affairs, Muktesh K Pardeshi said that work for PSKs in Aruchal Pradesh, galand and Tripura are on the verge of completion.

"We have Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) functiol in Mizoram. We have functiol PSK in Shillong.  We have a PSK functioning in Sikkim. And now work for PSKs in Aruchal Pradesh, galand and Tripura are on the verge of completion," said Pardeshi.

The government intends to cover entire India under the PSKs. "In the earlier system, there were several states and union territories which were not part of institutiol coverage. For instance in the Northeast, we have passport office in Guwahati, which used to look into the passport issuance issue of other NE states. But the situation has been changed now."

He said that similarly work is going on for Puduchery PSK. "We have recently set up extension outfit in Daman & Diu. The idea of the government is to cover all states and union territories under passport issuance system, connected to PSKs," he said.

He also said that wherever government is not able to come up with PSKs, it is using other option like the Passport Seva Cab. "It's a mobile cab, where our people go with equipments and organize camps with the help of district administrations and collect applications over a weekend on Saturday and Sunday," Pardeshi said.

Since last October more than 100 such camps across India have already been done. "In this way we have been able to reach to several remote areas of the country with the help of this strategy," he said.

The project (PSK) has provided jobs to close to 2500 associates mainly in small towns improving family earnings and social standing. The project has also hired close to 45 percent women including 11 percent in leadership roles. Various energy saving initiatives at the Data Centre have helped in annual reduction of 70,000 Kg of the project's carbon footprint.  

The Ministry of Exterl Affairs (MEA) has successfully integrated Passport data validation with Aadhaar database. As part of Aadhaar integration, applicants applying  for  Passport  related  services  would  be  encouraged  to  provide  Aadhaar number   as   part   of   their   online   application   registration   process.