1.14 crore more passport holders in two years but verification still the bane

NEW DELHI: While 6.33 crore Indians now hold valid passports, up considerably from 5.19 crore in 2013, the issuance of passport continues to suffer from delay in police verification, latest figures compiled by the foreign ministry show.

In fact, the average all-India time taken for police verification has now reduced to 34 days (it was 49 in 2013), but that's still way above the ministry's desired period of 21 days.

According to foreign ministry joint secretary and chief passport officer Muktesh Pardeshi, 61% of all passport verifications were completed within 21 days.

“Today, on a pan India basis, 68% of normal passports which require police verification are issued within a month. If police verification period is excluded, then 94% of normal passports are issued within 21 days,” he said.



Interestingly, the newly created Telangana has emerged as the best performing state by completing police verification in eight days. It is followed by Andhra Pradesh (12 days), Chandigarh (12 days), Goa (12 days) and Delhi (14 days).

According to the official, in the case of Tatkal applications, 34% passports were issued on the day of submission. Overall, 87% were issued passports within three days.

In addition to the 77 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) currently operational in public private partnership (PPP) mode, the ministry has set up eight additional Passport Seva Kendras in Agartala, Aizawl, Gangtok, Imphal, Kalaburagi, Karimnagar, Darbhanga and Shillong, providing extended reach to passport applicants in the north-east. Ten more PSKs are likely to come up in 2016.

The data compiled by the ministry also reveals that Uttar Pradesh now accounts for the maximum number of passport applications. It is followed by Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Together they account for more than 51% of the applications.

Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Ahmedabad receive the maximum number of applications in that order. Malappuram, Pune, Thane and Khozhikode are on top among the smaller towns and cities. The maximum number of Indian passport applications received abroad were in the UAE, followed by Saudi Arabia, the US, Kuwait and Qatar.