Advertisment

Regional Passport Office to tie up with Bangalore One

author-image
Abhigna
New Update

BENGALURU, INDIA: The Regional Passport Office has decided to tie up with e-governance centres like Bangalore 'One' across the state, within the next 10-14 days. This decision was taken to avoid the tout menace in the process of passport registration.

Advertisment

L Madana Kumar Reddy, acting passport officer, has replaced KJ Srinivasa on Monday. Prior to this role, Reddy was with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). "By paying a fee of Rs 25, citizens who come under special categories like the aged, children and physically challenged will be able to generate their applicant reference numbers (ARN) at these centres. They can also get advice on the documents required for obtaining passports," a Times of India report quoted Reddy as saying.

The ARN facility can be used by those who have queries regarding the police clearance certificate. A proposal has also been made to install CCTVs at all branches. This proposal has been submitted to the Ministry of External Affairs. The installation of CCTVs will enable live videos from passport seva kendras (PSKs) across the state.

"We also hope that all the 77 PSKs in the country will be equipped with this feature soon," explained Reddy while discussing about the plans to have a centre in New Delhi, where all the activities at the PSKs across the country will be monitored by the officials.

The regional passport officer and his team in Bangalore will monitor all the activities across passport offices in the state but according to the acting Passport Officer, this process will take some time as they need to get the required infrastructure in place.