(a) whether the Government has received complaints regarding police verification for making passports;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government for their redressal; and
(c) whether the Government is going to take any steps for making the process of police verification simple and smooth and if so, the details thereof?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
[SHRI V. MURALEEDHARAN]
(a) & (b) Attention of the Ministry has been drawn at times that the people have found it difficult to get police verification for obtaining a passport. These difficulties have arisen because of non-production of documents by the applicants at the time of police verification; and applicant being not present at the residence when the police visits for the purpose of verification.
(c) The Ministry has taken various steps to streamline the process of getting a passport. Ministry has successfully connected significant number of District Police Headquarters (DPHQ) digitally into the Passport Seva Project. As on date, 741 Police Districts have been connected with Passport Seva Project digitally. The Passport Seva Project is capable of delivering the request for police verification directly to the Police Stations concerned wherever the infrastructure is available. In addition, the Ministry has launched mPassport Police Application for speedy submission of Police Verification Report. The application has the capability to capture passport applicant’s personal particulars and photograph and transmit the same electronically to concerned stakeholders. In order to further ease and expedite the PV process, the number of questions asked in the questionnaire has also been reduced.
Passport Officers remain in touch with the district police authorities to expedite police verification and also take up the issue of delayed police verifications with the concerned State Governments requesting them to accord high priority to the submission of police verification reports.
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