Passport offices manpower increase mooted, says official

New Delhi, June 23 (IANS) Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs B.K. Gupta said Saturday that manpower issues in passport offices were on the government's agenda.

"In 1992, we had issued two million passports, and in 2011 we issued seven million passports to people. However, the staff has not increased. Subsequently, manpower issues are on our agenda," Gupta told reporters here.

Gupta said that the ministry is in talks with the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) of the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) for increasing the number of staff.

"We are in touch with the SSC and the department has assured us that they will provide us 100 LDCs (lower division clerks). As far as higher ranked officials are concerned, we will take some officers on deputation," Gupta said.

Gupta said that with growing numbers of passport applicants every year, 77 Passport Kendras have been set up across the country.

"It was a huge challenge to set each Passport Kendra and out of these 77 Kendras, 70 were set up in the past 40 weeks," said Gupta.

"During summer vacations, many people apply for passports. Students apply for passports as the academic courses abroad start in the autumn. We have responded to this unique problem by opening Passport Mela," said Gupta.

The Passport Mela is being held in in New Delhi, Ghaziabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Amritsar, where offices will be open Saturday and Sunday to address the massive demand and complaints of delay in issuance of the travel document.

"Any applicant can walk in with their application form and we will assist them. In fact, we are working weekends for this," said Gupta.