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The Fifth Passport Seva Divas and Passport Officers Conference were organized by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on 22-23 June, 2017 at Jawahar Lal Nehru Bhavan, New Delhi. The high-level segment of the Conference was held on 23 June, 2017. The event was graced by the External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Communications Shri Manoj Sinha and Ministers of State for External Affairs General (Dr.) V.K. Singh (Retd.) and Shri M.J. Akbar.

The Ministry of External Affairs also celebrated on this occasion the completion of 50 years of the Passports Act 1967 which was enacted on 24th June, 1967. A Special Commemorative Stamp and First Day Cover were released by the Department of Posts to mark the occasion.

External Affairs Minister announced that the Ministry will soon unveil the new passport booklet with additional features to print the passport bilingually – both in English and in Hindi. The printing of the text in Devnagari would be available as an option for those who would like to have a bilingual passport. India Security Press, Nasik has been asked to work on this.

EAM also announced two new schemes – one for senior citizens and another for minors upto the age of eight years. Under this Scheme, a discount of 10 per cent will be given on the applicable passport fee for all fresh applications for passports to all minors up the age of 8 years and to all senior citizens. This facility would be available from 24 June 2017.

In order to further improve and liberalize Police Verification procedure for passport issuance, the Ministry of External Affairs announced on 25 January, 2016 that normal passport applications of all first time applicants furnishing Aadhaar, Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC), Permanent Account Number (PAN) Card and an affidavit in the prescribed format that no criminal proceedings were pending against the applicant will be processed on Post-Police Verification basis, enabling faster issue of passport, without payment of any additional fees. The External Affairs Minister announced today that in place of PAN Card, henceforth PAN Card or Ration Card of the applicant would be acceptable for this purpose.

Passport Seva Puruskars were awarded to the best performing Passport Offices, Police Departments and the meritorious individual officials of the Passport Offices.

Upto May 2014, 77 PSKs were operative in the country. The present Government had announced 16 more PSLKs. All the North Eastern States were included in this expansion plan. Out of these 16, fourteen Passport Seva Laghu Kendras (PSLK), including in all the North Eastern States, have become operative. Two more PSLKs at Siliguri in West Bengal and at Sholapur in Maharashtra are scheduled to be inaugurated shortly.

The Ministry of External Affairs in association with Ministry of Communication took an innovative initiative and decided to open Passport Offices at Head Post Offices in the country to be known as ‘Post Office Passport Seva Kendra’ (POPSK). Ministry announced 86 POPSK in the first phase. Out of this 52 POPSKs have become operational. EAM announced 149 POPSKs in the second phase taking the total of POPSKs to 235. With the addition of 235 POPSKs, the total number of Passport Seva Kendras including POPSK to be added by the present Government for the benefit of the citizens would be 251. Ministry has targeted to make passport services available to the citizens within 50 Km distance. To achieve this objective, mapping of all the 810 HPOs has started.

The Government remains committed to the principle of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’ and delivering services to citizens in a convenient, accountable and putting in place more and more inclusive and robust mechanisms to achieve these objectives. EAM and MOS advised all present to renew their commitment towards delivering Passport Services to the citizens with greater dedication, consideration and in a transparent and professional manner.