Officials listen to grievances at the passport adalat on Friday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Hajipur resident Amique Ahmad Hasmi has been queuing up at the passport office in Patna for the past three months.

Reason: He had applied for a passport in the first week of April. Even after nearly three months he is yet to receive the crucial document.

Hasmi, an engineer from Haldia Institute of Technology (HIT) in Bengal, had applied for the passport as he intends to make a career in the Gulf.

On Friday, he approached the passport adalat organised at the regional passport office in Mauryalok.

At the adalat, officers heard complaints of those who have applied for a passport but not received it even after months of waiting.

“I had applied for a passport in April first week but I am yet to receive it,” he said.

He added that on making enquiries at the regional passport office he was told that incomplete police verification has held up his passport.

According to Hasmi, he had mentioned Hajipur as his residential address in the passport application form. However, he had also mentioned Haldia, the place where he stayed for his higher studies.

“Officers said a police verification was not completed in Haldia. This was reason behind the delay,” said the 26-year-old.

Ali Mohammed, a resident of Siswan in Siwan district, too, was worried over the delay in getting a passport. He had applied for the document in February but is yet to receive it. Eyeing a career in West Asia, Ali said: “I had applied for a passport five months ago. I don’t know the exact reason behind the delay in issuing it.”

The graduate from PN College in Siwan said the local police had visited his residence for verification but he was not present when the cops had come. “Since I was not there in the house, the police could not verify anything about me from my family. They put a negative remark on the application that led to a delay in the process,” Ali said.

However, at the adalat on Friday, passport officers asked Ali to submit an affidavit that he was not present when the police had gone for verification.

“After Patna was gifted with a Passport Seva Kendra we heard that passports would be issued faster than before. But the old problems persist,” said Ali.

More than 90 applicants came to the adalat on Friday, which was meant to hear applicants who had filed their forms before April 30, 2013.

“After the Seva Kendra came into existence, cases of delay in issuing passports have been reported to us. Therefore, we started the adalats to hear their complaints,” a senior passport officer said.

After the introduction of a Seva Kendra, passports were issued in less than 50 days. Compared to this, in 2012, it took more than 80 days. In 2011, it was 131 days, while in 2010, it took 236 days to issue a passport from the day of submission of the application form.