2,500 aspirants at passport mela

Bangalore: Nearly 2,500 aspirants took advantage of the ‘Passport mela’ organised across Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) in the State on Saturday. Such melas have been organised regularly by the Regional Passport Office (RPO) to cater to increasing demand. The Bangalore RPO reportedly issued 68,167 passports in August this year. Regional Passport Officer P.S. Karthigeyan told The Hindu that of the 2,550 appointments made available before the mela, 2,533 were taken. Of these, 2,249 aspirants turned up. “The entire process of presenting the application form to completing biometric tests and the decision to grant or not grant passports was taken. Those cases which did not require police verification right away (‘Annexure-F’, where passport aspirants had certificates from authorised officers) went straight into printing. The others were sent to the police for verification,” he said. A release said a total of 2,550 appointments were made available for passport seekers in all PSKs in the State. Apart from Bangalore, the ‘Passport Mela’ was also held in Hubli and Mangalore PSKs. As many as 2,350 appointment slots were made available on September 15 to register for the mela under the normal category, while 200 tatkal appointments for Lalbagh Road PSK were released on September 18. They had registered online for the mela. Walk-ins, including on-hold and refused tokens, were not entertained. Applicants can check the status of their case online using their ARN by logging on to the portal of the passport department. A similar mela will be organised on October 11, for which 2,350 appointments will be released on October 6 under the normal category and on October 9 for 200 tatkal appointments for the PSK at Lalbagh Road.   Source: The Hindu