Passport verification set to go online by end of May

Bengaluru, May 9: Living up to its sobriquet 'Silicon Valley of India, Bengaluru is all set to become the first city in the country to introduce online police verification of passports. The pilot project is likely to take off by the end of this month. With tablets in their hand, policemen will knock on your doors and upload your details by using an app developed by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The move will help speedy completion of police verification. The police hope to introduce the tablets in all police stations simultaneously by May-end. "We are the first city in the country to use 'mPassport Police App' developed by the MEA. We have already identified policemen for training in its use,” Additional Commissioner of Police (West) KSR Charan Reddy told Deccan Herald. Thought the Hyderabad police use an online verification method, the app there is developed locally and not by the MEA, he added. The Home Department has spent Rs 8,000 on each tablet and procured 108 of them for 106 police stations (law and order). A list of around 250 police personnel has been sent for training to the Regional Passport Office (RPO). A team of experts will fly from Delhi to train them, Reddy said. The police receive around 20,000 applications a month for passport verification and dispose of 8,000 applications. The deadline for completion of verification is 21 days, but sometimes the verification is delayed due to various reasons. The number of delayed applications on any given day is around 1,300. "We want to bring down the number to nil within the next three months,” Reddy said. The current system consumes much time as it requires verification of physical documents which are processed at various levels. The new system enables the police top brass to ascertain if a policeman had actually visited the applicant’s house for verification. The policeman can collect details, fill in all the colums using the app and upload the duly filled-in forms. The new system reduces pressure on the police as well as the time taken for verification. "We aim to complete the verification within 10 days instead of 21 days,” Reddy said. RPO PS Karthigeyan told Deccan Herald that the MEA had announced introducing the app-based facility early this year. The system would be expanded all over Karnataka in the next phase. Deccan Herald