Number of BangaloreOne centres to go up

Number of BangaloreOne centres to go up

The Hindu

Chief Minister says people with disabilities will be given jobs at these centres

# BangaloreOne Centres at Malleswaram, Vijaynagar, R.T. Nagar, Jayanagar and Airport Road to accept passport applications from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
# Applications can be submitted without any extra service charge
# Regional office in Bangalore issued about two lakh passports in 2005
# Number of Speed Post centres to be increased to 500 by August

Bangalore: People with disabilities who are computer literate will be given jobs at BangaloreOne centres, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has said.

Speaking at the launch of a service to accept passport applications at the expanded BangaloreOne centre in Malleswaram on Monday, the Chief Minister said the number of people with disabilities at these centres would be increased to 15 per cent.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said they would be mostly be given jobs as counter operators.

New facility

About the newly-introduced facility of accepting passport applications, Mr. Kumaraswamy said this was another example to show that information technology could be effectively used to deliver services to the common man.

BangaloreOne Centres at Malleswaram, Vijaynagar, R.T. Nagar, Jayanagar and Airport Road would accept passport applications from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on all days, including holidays. Applications could be submitted without any extra service charge.

This facility would soon be extended to the remaining nine BangaloreOne centres. Tatkal facility is not available at these centres.

More centres

Speaking to presspersons after the launch, Mr. Kumaraswamy said centres based on the BangaloreOne model would be started soon throughout the State.

The number of such centres in Bangalore would be increased to 36, he added.

`Unique model'

Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed, who inaugurated the service, termed the initiative as "a unique model of cooperation."

While about two lakh passports were issued by the regional office at Bangalore in 2005, the District Passport Centres (DPCs) accounted for less than four per cent of the applications in the State.

Efforts were being made to boost submissions through the DPCs as it speeded up police verification process, with the local police alerted faster, and reduced time spent on correspondence, he said.

Speed Post centres

Since Speed Post had become a popular means for submitting passport applications, the number of Speed Post centres in India would soon be increased from 218 to 500 by August, Mr. Ahamed said.