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Passport rules simplified

     New Delhi: The passport office here has introduced from today several new measures making it easier for anyone to acquire a passport. Under the revised guidelines, the applicant will have to submit only three out of the 14 documents required. The mandatory police verification has been done away with for passports being renewed. The eligibility criterion for the stamp of Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR) has been reduced from graduation to matriculation. Authorisation powers for the waiver of police verification has been relaxed by extending it to Under Secretaries, Tehsildars and SHOs.

    Unless a negative remark is carried in the application, no police verification would be needed for those going in for a renewal of their old passports. The re-issuance of passports would be done within four days, sources said. A Tatkal (instant) scheme also has been launched, enabling applicants to receive passports within 14 days, as opposed to the 20 days which was the rule earlier, under the scheme. The duration can be reduced to seven days under the Tatkal scheme, by the applicant shelling out Rupees 500 extra, where as a Tatkal re-issue would be done in three days. The Ministry of External Affairs' (MEA) intention in doing away with the requirement for address verification has failed because of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) objections. The Home Ministry has also rejected the MEA's decision to bypass the mandatory requirement of the five-year address proof for those born in Jammu and Kashmir, but are residing outside the state The Ministry is also looking at the possibility of introducing stricter penalties in the Passports Act, for those obtaining passports illegally. The Centre has also put forth a proposal to introduce biometric passports.

     The new scheme will initially be introduced in 2007 as a pilot project for diplomatic and official categories. Based on the experience, other categories will be included at a later stage. Other facilities that the Ministry has decided to integrate for the benefit of the common people are Grant across counter, introduction of token system, holding of passport adalats (courts), online registration, greater number of district passport cells (DPCs) more Speed Post centres, separate counter for senior citizens and miscellaneous services such as spouse name endorsement, ECR status deletion and change of address are provided within the hour and present position of passport applications.
-Dec 26,  2006

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