Jorhat, June 21: Assam police have initiated an attempt to expedite the process of issuing police verification reports.

With an attempt to make zero-pendency of police verification applications in Jorhat district, a police verification mela (fair) will be organised by Jorhat police at Jorhat Stadium on June 27. It will be inaugurated by director-general of police Khagen Sarmah.

Jorhat will be the first district in the state where such a mela will be held from 9am to 5pm to clear pending applications requiring police verification.

Disclosing this to reporters here today, the superintendent of police, Jorhat, Amanjeet Kaur, said the police department had decided to expedite and streamline the process of issuing police verification to applicants as the process is a lengthy one.

As a request for police verification report comes to the superintendent of police’s office, it is dealt by the DSB (district special branch) cell in the office. It is forwarded to the respective police stations to carry out spot verification as per the details provided by the applicant and also to find out whether there is any criminal record of the individual.

After carrying out verification, an official of the police station files a report to the officer-in-charge of the police station who sends it back to the DSB cell of the SP’s office for signature of the SP. It is then sent back to the department concerned from which the application has come.

A police verification report is needed as part of the process while obtaining a passport, a permanent resident certificate, a driving licence and also while issuing appointment letters for state and central government jobs.

Kaur said the move for a prompt response is part of a plan to improve ties between the police and public.

She said people generally find it a bit tedious to wait for a long period of time to get police verification report as the procedure itself is lengthy. She said special attention will be given to hasten the process.

According to her, the police top brass has decided to organise the first mela in Jorhat district to clear all pending applications for police verification on that particular day. She said such melas could be held in other districts as per the decision of the police headquarters.

The SP said nearly 1,000 applications from across the district were pending at her office for almost a year and necessary work has been done to clear those on that particular day.

“We are inviting the applicants whose verification reports were pending to the mela with all necessary documents to make the district zero-pendency,” Kaur said. In the last fortnight, nearly 500 applications were disposed of, she added.

The SP said village defence parties and gaonburahs (village headmen) will be attending the mela to assist in spot verification of the applicants.