The Regional Passport Office in Ranchi is set to organise a Passport Mela on December 20 and 27 to sensitise people about the whole procedure to get hold of their passports. It is meant to facilitate people who are in the waiting period, educate the illiterate class, solve the issues in acquiring one's passport, know the details about Visa and get the related work done swiftly.
"This fest was initiated in 2012. Gradually the number of applicants has been increasing every year. We guide those people who are not able to apply for passport online. Also the cycle of appointment has reduced. Problems like police clearance certificate, investigation delay and document issues are solved in correspondence with police authorities. Illiterate applicants are the ones who gain a lot of information and solution from this fair," said the Assistant Passport Officer, Sanjay Kumar Sinha.
This year 58,000 candidate applied for passport. From 200 people in 2013, now 460 people are applying for passport on a daily basis. "Earlier passport used to come in 120 days. Now it arrives within a month. Just a minute ago we rescheduled a guest's appointment from Monday to Saturday," informed a staff. The lines opened from today for those who want to take part in the Passport Mela. Two kiosks will be set up to manage the amount of participation. All the staff members will be deployed for the festival for smooth working.
Sinha said that one of the important components of Pragya Kendra is to help uneducated population in applying for passport. "We have trained the staff of Pragya Kendra. There is a lot of such Kendras spread across Ranchi to make use of,” he said.