Question : PENDING PASSPORT APPLICATIONS



(a) whether the Government proposes to set up Passport Offices in various States particularly in Tamil Nadu;

(b) if so, the details thereof, State-wise;

(c) whether the Government proposes to set up a new Regional Passport Centre at Shimla;

(d) if so, whether the Regional Passport Office set up at Dehradun has since started issuing passports to the public;

(e) if not, the reasons therefor;

(f) the details of passport applications pending in various passport offices for the last two years, State-wise, RPO-wise;

(g) whether the applications are pending for want of police verification reports; and

(h) if so, the steps taken/proposed to be taken to speed up the issuance of passports?

Answer given by the minister


THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS (SHRI E. AHAMED)

(a) Yes.

(b) New Passport offices will be opened in the following Cities/States:

Amritsar	–	Punjab
Shimla	-	Himachal Pradesh
Dehradun	-	Uttranchal
Raipur	-	Chhattisgarh

Decision in principle has also been taken to open the following new Passports Offices during next year:
Madurai	-	Tamil Nadu
Coimbatore	-	Tamil Nadu

(c) Yes

(d) Not yet.

(e) The Government of India is in the process of locating suitable premises for the Passport Office in Dehradun. Once the premises are finalised, requisite infrastructure and suitable manpower will be arranged to make the Passport Office functional.

(f) Details are enclosed at Annexure A

(g) Yes. A number of applications have been pending for this reason.

(h) The Government have continuously been taking various steps to bring down the number of pending passport applications in the RPOs. These include simplification of passport issuance procedures, including decentralisation of submission of application forms, liaison with State Government authorities to expedite police verification reports, conducting periodic pendency clearance drives and holding Passport Adalats.