PASSPORT SANS PERSONAL INFO MAY BECOME A REALITY SOON
NEW DELHI: Soon, you may have a passport that doesn’t disclose personal details such as the name of your spouse, father or mother.
The external affairs ministry is exploring setting up a process to issue such passports in India.
The new proposed guidelines, if implemented, will make it easier for children of single parents to get passports.
The existing rules mandate that the child should have names of both parents printed in the passport.
The proposal was part of the recommendations made by a three-member committee of external affairs and women and child development ministries constituted to examine issues related to disclosure of personal details in the passport booklets.
“The MEA (ministry of external affairs) accepted the recommendation and this particular suggestion is being discussed with stakeholders to arrive at a decision,” officials said.
The basis of the recommendation was that passports issued by many countries don’t have such details in the booklets, which is part of protecting the privacy and individual choices.
The committee was constituted to examine various issues pertaining to passport applications where mother or child had insisted that the name of the father should not be mentioned in the passport . NEW DELHI: Religion, quenching animal thirst and public interests are some of the reasons cited by an environment ministry panel to recommend big ticket projects in and around India’s critical tiger and wildlife habitats.
About 50 such projects got the nod at a meeting of the standing committee of the national board for wildlife (SC-NBWL) headed by environment minister Anil Madhav Dave, the minutes of the meeting released this week revealed.
Religion was invoked to allow widening of a road through Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve in Andhra Pradesh. It is dubbed “public utility for devotees” as it will provide better connectivity between Atmakur and Kolanu Bharathi Temple.
The minutes of the meeting held on January 3 said the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) recommended the project after due feasibility assessment carried out by a team of officers and scientists.
While allowing a check dam at Balaram Ambji sanctuary in Gujarat, the committee maintained that the water stored there will help wildlife quench their thirst during dry season. A large area of the sanctuary will be utilised for building the dam.
The committee recommended an approach canal through Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat, stating it will provide irrigation facilities to farmers of 10 villages.
The panel also allowed conversion of meter gauge line to broad gauge through Melghat Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra as Railways claimed that an alternate route would result in “felling of thousand of trees”. The minutes showed that the Railways’ claim has not been vetted by any expert agency and the concerns of the NTCA on impact of the faster train line through the reserve on tiger dispersal, habitat connectivity