The Ghaziabad Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) is facing acute shortage of staff resulting in long queues at the premises by applicants from across the 13 districts of Western Uttar Pradesh, who wait up to eight hours in order to submit their passport application. The PSK receives almost 600 applications per day.
Admitting to the shortage, the Regional Passport Officer (RPO) Sita Ram Yadav said the demand for passports have increased tremendously and the present infrastructure is not able to bear the pressure of catering to 600 applicants every day, due to shortage of staff.
Earlier 'The Pioneer' had carried a story pertaining to the chaotic situation at the Ghaziabad PSK. The RPO said, "At counter 'A', where submissions are made, the file is cleared within a stipulated time of about 15 minutes to half-an-hour. However, at 'B' and 'C' counters, which are controlled by departments of the Government -- applicants had to wait for about one to one-and-a-half hour. Along with shortage of staff, changes made in the procedure, is also responsible for the delay."
"To deal with an inflow of about 600 applicants a day, we need at least six to eight officers at 'C' level counters, but at present there are only three to four officers, hence, there is a shortage of about three to four officers. We manage officers from here and there to control the agitated applicants waiting in the queue. At this stage, the work is important and cannot be assigned to temporary staff, so the office is facing constrains on this front too," said the RPO.
According to the new procedure, once the application is processed and file number is issued, the process should not be delayed for defective submissions on account of enclosures and other annexure. So the screening at counter 'C' is important, where a bottleneck has occurred due to shortage of staff, admitted the RPO.
The RPO further said that in particular cases, the delay occurs due to non-availability, defective applications or delay in availability of Police Verification Report (PVR).
The department is working on receiving the police verification online, which will shorten the procedure from a maximum of 20 days to 14 days or earlier. The PVR from Agra and Noida have started coming online, while the PVR from Ghaziabad has a one-way online system.
The regional passport office is uploading PVR online to the police, while receiving them through messenger after verification. The department is working to finally get the PVR online from all 13 districts.