For Maheswaran Ramasamy, a senior citizen, it was a pleasant experience to visit the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) in the city. “The ambience is good. The reception accorded to me was also good. The entire process turned out to be so simple that it was over soon and I was out of the office in less than 30 minutes,” he said.
He recalled how he waited in a long queue under a scorching sun a decade ago to get his new booklet in Tiruchi, as the Madurai office was started only in December 2007. “Compared to the dinghy Tiruchi office, the Passport Seva Kendra in Madurai resembles more like a corporate office what with the highly-skilled staff employing modern technology to get the job done in a jiffy,” he said.
“After I got my online appointment, I went to the PSK and the process was so smooth that I returned home in less than two hours much to the surprise of my wife. She asked me whether I had left any document at home and needed to go to the passport office again. We were all the more thrilled to see the new booklet at our doorstep in five working days,” he summed up.
This is not a strange case as there has been a transformation in the issuance of passports and other services, said Regional Passport Officer S. Maniswara Raja.
The Ministry of External Affairs has simplified the procedure that gone are the days when applicants had to furnish a number of documents for residence proof, identity proof and others. It is no more cumbersome, while at the same time, the applicants should also produce genuine information as cross checks at random by senior officers may land the applicants in trouble, he said.
The website,www.passportindia.gov.in, is not only user-friendly, but also self-explanatory. From filling up the application form online to remitting the prescribed fee online, the process is simple. The applicant must just bring a printout of the Application Registration Number (ARN) on the appointed hour to the PSK.
Mr. Raja said the Madurai office issued 1,400 new passports every working day. It gave appointments to 900 applicants in a day. There had been a steep rise after the application procedure was simplified in December 2016, he said.
The PSK is manned by trained personnel from Tata Consultancy Services who are assisted by Passport Officers in verifying documents and granting approvals.
During a visit to the PSK at Kochadai, the applicants, who spoke with this correspondent, also shared that the process was quick. Rajkumari R, a city resident, said she had come to get her passport reissued. “I just walked in and after verification was done, I came out in less than 30 minutes,”she said.
An officer at the PSK said that from issuing 491 passports in December 2007, the Madurai office had issued 15,76,858 passports till date. Since the procedures had been simplified, the numbers are expected to go up and by thus year-end , the Madurai RPO is likely to cross the three lakh mark, he said. It was 2.43 lakh in 2016.
College students can walk into the RPO on Wednesdays and Thursdays and get their work done. If the documents required were satisfactory, they would get the booklet without any delay.
Though public had been sensitised not to approach touts or travel agents, still there were few complaints of fake seals of government offices being used for issuance of birth certificates by the touts against whom action was initiated, an officer said.
"கடலில் மீன் பிடிக்கச் செல்லும் மீனவ மக்கள் மீது இலங்கை அரசு கடும் தாக்குதலை நடத்திக் கொண்டு வருகிறது. சில நாட்களுக்கு முன்பு ராமேஸ்வரத்தைச் சேர்ந்த இளம் மீனவர் பிரிட்ஜோ சுட்டுப் படுகொலை செய்யப்பட்டார். இதனால், கொந்தளித்த மீனவ சமூகத்து மக்கள் தொடர் போராட்டங்களை நடத்தினர். மாநில அரசு சார்பில் இலங்கை அரசுக்கு வலுவான கண்டனத்தைத் தெரிவிக்கவில்லை என்ற கோபமும் மீனவ மக்கள் மத்தியில் உள்ளது. பிரிட்ஜோ மறைவுக்குப் பிறகு மீண்டும் கடலுக்குச் சென்ற மீனவர்கள் மீது இலங்கை அரசு மீண்டும் தாக்குதல் நடவடிக்கையில் இறங்கியது.
