The time taken for police verification for a passport has come down to 16 days, resulting in faster issue of the travel document, said V Muraleedharan, Minister of State for External Affairs.

The government's endeavour should be to further simplify rules and regulations for the issue of passports by making the process simpler and optimising the requirement of documents, he said at an event to mark Passport Divas on Wednesday.

The MoS said the faster police clearance was due to many initiatives that have been taken by the State police authorities, especially those of Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Haryana and Kerala. "I would urge all the Passport Officers to take up with their State police authorities to use our mPassport Police app, if they have not yet done so, as this can further reduce the time taken for police verification," he said.

The issuance of passports is one of the most successful citizen-centric activities of the Ministry of External Affairs, he added. "It is heartening that we issued more than 1 crore passports last year. I congratulate the collective efforts of all of you for the success story of the passport issuance system today. Without the dedication and support of the officials of the Central Passport Organisation, it would not have been possible for the Ministry to deliver passport services in a seamless manner," he said.

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