The Hindu Business Line : Passport office staff on warpath over move to privatise services

PROTEST is brewing among passport office employees over the reported move of the Union External Affairs Ministry to entrust private parties with various passport related services.

The office bearers of the All India Passport Employees Association said the Deputy Secretary in the Central Passport and Visa Division had already invited tenders for privatising the whole process of issuing passports - such as preparation of file at counters, detail entry in computer, scanning of photograph and signature in applications, printing, lamination and despatch of passports and linking of police verification reports in files.

Terming it as a first step towards privatisation of passport offices, the association said more than 90 per cent of the work would rest with private contractors.

Police verification and district passport cells had already been entrusted to the State Government agencies.

The association pointed out that the privatisation move is contemplated at a time when the staff had achieved record output by working extra hours and on holidays. The move is all the more shocking since the Central Passport Organisation has been achieving record performance over the years.

The number of passports issued reached a staggering 34 lakh in 2004 from 12 lakh in 1985. This 200-per cent growth has come with only a 40-per cent increase in staff strength.

The association said the employees in Kozhikode office worked in three shifts even on Saturday and Sundays to clear the pending applications.

Another 27,000 passports were printed in two weeks, which is about 15 per cent of the total passport issued in a year.

But the Central Passport and Visa Division, in a recent order, had banned working on holidays terming it as illegal.

Threatening to launch an agitation against the move, the association said these brazen moves intended for privatisation are bound to pose a serious threat to the national security.

The recent scam involving call centres points to the possibility of misuse of sensitive data especially in a matter that directly affects the national interests, they said.

As part of the agitation, all members at all branches outside the gate of the respective passport offices will observe lunchtime demonstrations on Thursday and Friday.

Initially, the agitation will be confined to demonstrations and protests. But the association warned that it would be forced to resort to methods that would paralyse all the 30 passport offices in the country if the authorities failed to resolve the issue.

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