KL Report
SRINAGAR
From the beginning of this year to July 15, more than 30000 passports have been issued by the authorities here in valley on the fast track bases.
Passport officer Srinagar Firdous Iqbal Wednesday stated that the office received 35,800 applications for the issuance of the vital travel document and that out of that 30000 applicants have been issued the passports.
Earlier, in order to eliminate monopoly and to curb unregulated kiosks offering passport application filling services in Kashmir, the Ministry of Communication, Information and Technology government of India tied up with Village Level Entrepreneurs to offer these services to people on nominal charges.
The Passport Officer said that the people can now avail these services at any time at Khidmat Centres across the state. “Aspirants will be charged Rs 100 for filling up of a single online passport application form as compared to exorbitant rates charged by private kiosks,” Firdous Iqbal said.
He said that the union ministry for communication under Common Service Centres-Special Purpose Vehicles (CSC-SPV) has started this facility for the common people who so far were being taken at a ride by unregulated kiosks in the market. The new facility will end the monopoly of these private centres who were charging people as per their own parameters, a Passport applicant observed. The facility has already been started by the government of India and people have been appealed by the passport officer to avail these services.
