The Hindu Business Line : Rural passport applicants outnumber urbanites

IT is not just the urbanites who are setting their eyes on greener pastures abroad. Illiterate rural Indians, who are perceived to be blind to the world of opportunities, are in the race too.

About 80 per cent of passport seekers at the Hyderabad Regional Passport Office belonged to rural areas.

According to Mr Sraman Kumar, Regional Passport Officer, people from districts such as Kadapa and Kurnool applied in large numbers for passports.

This was contrary to the popular belief that the urban software professionals lead the list of passport-seekers.

But the inordinate delays in getting the required clearances from the police department have been a hindrance to rural applicants.

The office addressed this problem in the last three years by taking up the issue with the Superintendents of Police concerned.

The number of applications with `reports awaited' tag in rural areas which stood at 60,000 in 2002 came down to 8,000 at present," he said.

In all, about one lakh applications were pending at the office three years ago.

"We could clear the list, thanks to the support from the staff and initiatives we have taken during the period," he said.

Attributing the delay to lack of accountability, he said a system of trigger mechanism had been introduced.

"Once you file your application, it will kick off a process automatically," he said.

"It is a mathematical process. There are 10 stages in completing the process. There is a possibility of time delays when an application passes through. We have taken measures to cut it down," the official said.

On the user-friendly initiatives, Mr Sravan Kumar said an interactive voice response system (IVRS), with connectivity to internal servers, would be launched this week by Mr E. Ahamed, Union Minister of State for External Affairs.

"Applicants can call 1250244 to know about the status," he said. A 30-line fibre optic network has been put in place to answer the calls round the clock.

Yet another interesting feature at the passport office would be an online police verification system.

"We will send the info to police online and they would send in their replies online. This would help the officials to keep tabs on applicants with adverse reports," he said.

Besides, the authorised travel agents would be allowed to pass on the applications online.

As against three lakh applications received in 2004, the office received 2.28 lakh up to August 2005.

The total revenue stood at Rs 41.36 crore in 2004. Up to August 2005, the office registered a revenue of Rs 24.26 crore.

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