Agartala, Dec. 31: A passport seva kendra to issue international passports was opened by the minister for information and finance, Bhanulal Saha, here this morning. 

However, Union minister of state for external affairs V.K. Singh skipped the programme owing to “urgent preoccupation”.

Saha welcomed the opening of the kendra in Agartala at a time when issuance of hand-written Indo-Bangla passport is banned. “The newly introduced Agartala-Calcutta bus service via Dhaka is helping the Tripura people who are affected by geographical isolation. Our sole access to the country is through National Highway 44. Air travel is expensive, hence, the bus service, coupled with the kendra, will help us a lot,” said Saha.

Regional passport officer Gitika Srivastava and chief passport officer and joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs Muktesh Kumar Pardesi said the newly opened centre in Agartala was the sixth in the Northeast. 

“We will now cover Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland by the end of next year. We have altogether 84 kendras in the country now and the number will be 90 by the next financial year,” an official said. In the current financial year, the target was to issue 1.2 crore passports but already 1.8 crore passports had been issued, he added.

“India is the third highest in the world after China and USA in terms of people having international passports. We have also been organising fairs to distribute passports and the passport seva kendra service has received the first prize in the sector of e-governance provided by the Centre,” said Pardesi. At present, Indian citizens have 6.5 crore valid passports and in the current financial year until now, the Centre had earned Rs 2,400 crore by issuing passports. 

“We have organised 125 passport camps to collect application forms from the remote areas of the country,” said Pardesi. He, however, expressed concern over “delays” in police verification process. 

“The national average of time taken for police verification is 34 days but in Tripura it’s 91 days, whereas in Arunachal Pradesh, it’s 200 days. Delhi is the fastest in this regard as police verification is done in only 12 days. It’s done in 18 and 21 days in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh respectively,” Paredesi said.

A passport application form collection centre was launched in Tripura on November 1, 1997. “Between 1972 and November 30, 2013, altogether 1,58,021 hand-written Indo-Bangla passports were issued. Since hand-written passports are now banned, all the hand-written Indo-Bangla passport holders will have to apply afresh and obtain international passports,” he said.