There is a good news for those who are seeking to procure passport. With the implementation of e-governance system in the State, Uttarakhand police will be able to release certificate of police verification to passport applicants within 15 days, said Uttarakhand Director General of Police BS Sidhu on Tuesday.
Earlier, applicants had to wait around 80 days for receiving certification of their police verification from the police department. The police department will start operating this system from January 1, 2014. In the first phase, this system will be operational in four districts including Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital, he added.
The DGP said that after implementation of this system, the passport applicants will be advised to register themselves online on police website and procedure for conducting verification of the applicants will be completed in three stages. The department is going to launch passport seva project service (PSPS) by January 1, 2014 at Passport Seva Kendra (PSK), which will be established at district police head quarter (DPHQ). Under this process, verification of applicants will be done simultaneously at district and police head quarter level. At present 77 PSPS are functional in the country.
District database and State database of the applicants will be linked with database of the Home and External Affairs ministries of the Government of India. It means police is going to use CCTNS for verification of applicant. This method will help in issuing police verification certification to passport applicants within 15 days.
In the first stage, required documents submitted by the applicants will be verified and applicants will be given token. Biometric photos and finger print of applicants and fees for passport will be collected. In the second phase, passport office staff will verify their documents. In the third stage, superintendent and above rank officer will verify the document. As they scrutinize the document then Police verification (PV) form will generate automatically. One copy will also come directly to PHQ intelligence and even they upload the information on Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & system (CCTNS). During PV police will check on five points i.e. address of the applicants, identity, citizenship, criminal antecedents and lIU reports about applicants before approval. They will to submit their PV by next 15 days. Meanwhile Police will procure clearance from MHA as well. "This system will help in checking corruption in the department. We have taken this decision in consultation with passport department, he added.
As PV is cleared then applicant will be issued passport in next three days. Initially they PSK will be established in four districts by January 1, 2014. To deal with this state police is going to train their police personnel with passport office staff by December 19. Initially they have selected three police personnel from each four districts.