July 10: Calcutta's second passport processing centre opens at the Beadon Street head post office in north Calcutta on July 15, sparing applicants living in areas policed by Lalbazar the trouble of travelling all the way to Kasba on the Bypass.
The announcement was made today by IFS officer Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay, the secretary for consular, passport, visa and overseas Indian affairs in the ministry of external affairs.
Mulay said Bengal would soon get four more Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) - in Barrackpore, Burdwan, Darjeeling and Malda. "Our vision is to have a passport office every 50km across the country so that people do not have to travel far to get their passports."
Bengal currently has two PSKs - one at Kasba and the other at Behrampore, in Murshidabad district. The one announced for Siliguri has yet to be inaugurated.
Earlier this year, the regional passport office had inaugurated a post office passport centre each in Asansol and Raigunj, in North Dinajpur. Besides the Beadon Street centre, Union minister of state M.J. Akbar is scheduled to open another one at Krishnanagar, in Nadia district, on Saturday.
How it will work
♦ People living in areas under the jurisdiction of Calcutta police can apply for an interview at Beadon Street post office through www.passportindia.gov.in
♦ Approved files will be sent to the Calcutta regional passport office (RPO)
♦ RPO will forward the files for police verification
Bibhuti Bhushan Kumar, the regional passport officer in Calcutta, said the Beadon Street centre would accept 35 to 40 applications a day. "The procedure for applying at the Beadon Street POPSK is the same as that for the existing PSKs in the state. We will soon notify the dates from when applicants will be able to book their appointment slots online," Kumar said.
Sources in the ministry of external affairs said the post office model would replicate the standard PSK system, barring one feature.
"Unlike in a PSK, there will be no granting officers at the post office level. This means that an applicant would need to submit the documents, undergo biometric registration and then appear for a round of interviews. However, due to lack of granting officers for the time being, the files would be sent to the back office on Brabourne Road for final ratification. Once that is done, the files would be sent online to the police for verification," said an official in Delhi.
Currently, the average time taken by Bengal police to complete verification is 71 days. Calcutta police has achieved a cycle of 13-15 days.
