94% of pending passport applications cleared: JK govt

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir government today described the reports about blacklisting of 75,000 families for government jobs and passport facilities as "patently untrue", and said 94 per cent of the pending applications seeking clearance for passport have been cleared.

"An impression has been created that there has been blacklisting of 75,000 families who have been indexed in security list, thereby blocking their opportunities for government jobs and travel plans or passport facilities. These allegations are patently untrue," Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's political secretary Tanvir Sadiq said here.

He said in the past three years, about three lakh passport applications have been processed or disposed off and in the past five months alone, more than 5,000 adverse cases have been reviewed and cleared.

Sadiq said 94 per cent of the pending applications seeking clearance for issuing passport have been cleared since the current dispensation came to power.

"Around 94 per cent applications, which include the back log from previous years has been disposed off," he said.

Sadiq said the policy guidelines for passport verifications announced by the government in 2011 has been an important step that facilitated the travel of a number of citizens for their jobs and Haj pilgrimage over the past couple of years.