'Govt taking steps to avoid delay in issuance of passports'

The government today admitted that there is a delay in issuing passports in a few passport offices and assured that remedial measures are being taken to avoid the delays.     

In a written reply, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor told the Rajya Sabha that the government had entrusted the NISG, Hyderabad, with the task of undertaking a time-bound study on the passport issuance system, including its IT aspects.     

He said the government accepted the NISG report as a result of which the "Passport Seva Project" has been launched.     

The proposal is to have 77 Passport Seva Kendras all over the country where initial scrutiny of application forms, acceptance of fee, scanning of documents, among others, will be performed by selected service providers.     

"The sensitive activities such as police verification, printing and dispatch of passports will be performed by government staff," Tharoor added.     

He said the project is expected to result in the issuance of passports within three days, and where police verification is required, then the process will be completed within three days after completion of the verification process.

"The project is expected to be implemented fully to cover the entire country by the middle of 2010," the minister added.