Tarini Puri, TNN | Jul 4, 2013 PUNE: The next time an applicant visits a passport sevakendra, the granting officer may refer to an elaborate manual before processing the application.
The passport division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has drawn up an exhaustive manual of procedures to be followed for issuing passports to standardize the response of regional passport officers and granting officers.
Anil Kumar Sobti, director of the passport division of the MEA told TOI that the draft of the manual has been sent to all regional passport officers (RPO) to seek their views on the best-possible treatment of 80 probable situations that may arise during the issuance of passports, including accepting documents and handling different categories of applicants.
Currently, there is variation in the manner in which passport applications are dealt with in the passport seva kendras. In many cases, acceptability of documents furnished by the applicant is decided on the basis of which part of the country the application is filed or even the "perception" of the granting officers.
"Perception of a situation always differs between two individuals. This can neither be ruled out, nor easily dealt with. With the help of feedback from all the RPOs, we endeavour to eliminate regional variations and standardize the response to possible situations, so that officers in different parts of the country will deal with the same documents in a uniform manner," Sobti said, adding that all RPOs are expected to send their feedback in two to four weeks.
Sobti admitted that tricky situations arise during the scrutiny of documents submitted by the applicants. "There are times when granting officers ask applicants to produce additional documents. This happens when he/she is not satisfied with what has been submitted.
We have picked 80 such situations and evaluated possible ways of dealing with them, based on which a nationalised response manual is being worked out. The idea is to provide more user-friendly service by adopting the best practices uniformly across the country," he said.
Sobti also did not rule out the option of adopting region-specific procedures. "If regionalisation is useful, then it will be accommodated when required or standardised," he said.
Shakuntala Rane, regional passport officer of Pune district, denied having received a request for her feedback for the manual. "Problems and situations arise in every passport office, and Pune is no exception. My office has so far not received any communication in this regard. If we do, I will respond to it based on my experience here," she said.
The passport division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has drawn up an exhaustive manual of procedures to be followed for issuing passports to standardize the response of regional passport officers and granting officers.
Anil Kumar Sobti, director of the passport division of the MEA told TOI that the draft of the manual has been sent to all regional passport officers (RPO) to seek their views on the best-possible treatment of 80 probable situations that may arise during the issuance of passports, including accepting documents and handling different categories of applicants.
Currently, there is variation in the manner in which passport applications are dealt with in the passport seva kendras. In many cases, acceptability of documents furnished by the applicant is decided on the basis of which part of the country the application is filed or even the "perception" of the granting officers.
"Perception of a situation always differs between two individuals. This can neither be ruled out, nor easily dealt with. With the help of feedback from all the RPOs, we endeavour to eliminate regional variations and standardize the response to possible situations, so that officers in different parts of the country will deal with the same documents in a uniform manner," Sobti said, adding that all RPOs are expected to send their feedback in two to four weeks.
Sobti admitted that tricky situations arise during the scrutiny of documents submitted by the applicants. "There are times when granting officers ask applicants to produce additional documents. This happens when he/she is not satisfied with what has been submitted.
We have picked 80 such situations and evaluated possible ways of dealing with them, based on which a nationalised response manual is being worked out. The idea is to provide more user-friendly service by adopting the best practices uniformly across the country," he said.
Sobti also did not rule out the option of adopting region-specific procedures. "If regionalisation is useful, then it will be accommodated when required or standardised," he said.
Shakuntala Rane, regional passport officer of Pune district, denied having received a request for her feedback for the manual. "Problems and situations arise in every passport office, and Pune is no exception. My office has so far not received any communication in this regard. If we do, I will respond to it based on my experience here," she said.
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