Stressing on the need to improve the outreach of Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKS) in Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday urged Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to open three more units at Baleswar, Brahmapur and Bhawanipatna.
Patanik during his meeting with Swaraj in New Delhi appealed to the latter to initiate measures for opening of three more POPSKS in the second phase in Odisha.
“This will ensure that people located in far flung areas of different regions get the desired access to Passport services in the State,” said Patnaik.
Patnaik also requested Swaraj to issue suitable advisory to India’s Diplomatic Missions abroad to demonstrate utmost sensitivity to teh problems being faced by Odias engaged in different sectors in different parts of the world, particularly in Middle East and South East Asian countries.
Maintaining that the State Government does not possess details of persons from Odisha working as skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour abroad and most of the time, the Government is reached by family members during crisis, the CM urged the Union Minister to provide database of people of the State working abroad.
“In the absence of database, substantial time is lost in obtaining vital details of the concerned immigrant and it becomes difficult to provide precise details like Passport number, address, etc required to access services of ‘Madad’ e-portal and this causes further avoidable delay in addressing their grievances,” said Patnaik.