MEA HIRES TO CUT WAITING TIME FOR PASSPORTS IN NEW YEAR

Come new year and citizens can hope to get their passports faster than before.

After two years, the government has finally set the ball rolling for appointment of 622 staffers against 848 posts to various passport offices across the country. These appointments are likely to shorten the waiting time for passport issuance.

The staff crunch, especially in non-metro cities, was affecting the time taken to process passports. On an average, when a passport was being issued within an average of three weeks time in New Delhi, people in other centres had to wait for two to three months.

By the end of this calendar year, despite the staff shortage, the external affairs ministry will have issued 1.2 crore passports.

Indian passports are issued through a network of 37 offices, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration. This network has been expanded by adding 77 Passport Seva Kendras. The 180 Indian missions and posts abroad also cater to work related to issuing passports of Indians living abroad.

Against the sanctioned strength of 2,697 posts at the Central Passport Organization and 21 posts for project management unit of the passport seva project, there are 46 vacancies for gazetted posts in Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ respectively, and 756 combined for non-Gazetted posts in Group ‘B’ and Group ‘C’.

The Staff Selection Commission has finished recruiting for appointment of 622 assistants and lower division clerks. Sources say they may start work by January 10.