Log out of passport rigmarole

Log out of passport rigmarole
The Times of India

Bangalore: You are in a hurry, you have no time, but still want to come and submit your passport. Well, the Bangalore Passport Office has introduced an online registration facility for fixing an appointment to submit your passport applications. The time slots you will get will be in the afternoons and you may require to spend only a maximum of 10 minutes. This system is already available.

Regional Passport Officer P Kumaran told The Times of India that the online system will enable applicants to choose their time and come to the passport office to submit their applications for new passports, renewals and other miscellaneous services.

Initially, it is planned to allocate 60 slots during the afternoons for this purpose. Normal applicants can however submit their forms as usual in the mornings, taking tokens and coming at the appointed time. The morning hours accommodate 380 slots.

Kumaran said that the applicants can fill in online a lot of details and this would reduce the scope of spelling mistakes. When you register online, it will give a barcode and registration number and the applicant needs to take a print out and come to the passport office at the time of appointment.

In cases if applicants miss the appointment, they will have to forfeit it, but could apply again for another date. The passport office has set up a website

www.kar.nic.in\passport

through which the online registration could be done. Also a Kannada website is being developed and the Karnataka Chief Minister’s office is coordinating the development of the Kannada website.

Kumaran said that the passport office is also reactivating district passport cells (DPCs), where applicants could get the benefit of the police department attaching the police verification before sending the application to the Bangalore office. Thus, this saves a lot of time too. Till now the DPCs were accepting only fresh passports, but now reissued passports too are being accepted here.

The only condition being laid down is that passports with valid visas will not be accepted at DPCs and they will have to be continued to be submitted at the Regional Passport Office in Bangalore.

Another facility being developed is providing the comprehensive status of passport applications, which has a total of 14 steps before the passports are ready to be collected. This would be a transparent system and the applicant will have clear knowledge of what is happening to his\her passport.

Also, a separate facility for senior citizens submitting their forms is being set up.

Kumaran appealed to the public not to come to the passport office as early as 6 am or 6.30 am to stand in queues, since now a token system has been introduced to come and submit the application forms. It is enough if the applicants come in at 9 am, he added.