As many as 18,000 passport applications are pending with the passport officials as Police Verification Reports are still awaited.
Regional Passport Officer P S Karthigeyan has expressed displeasure as it is delaying the overall process of issuing passports.
In a recent meeting with police officers, Home Minister K J George too expressed concern about this and directed them to take steps to expedite the verification process.
The statistics suggest that there has been a sharp rise in the passport applications since 2010. Last year, the city police disposed of nearly two lakh applications. This year (till June 21), the number has already touched 96,675.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Kamal Pant told Express that several measures have been taken up to speed up the process.
He said simplified verification forms have been drafted to expedite Police Verification Reports.
P S Karthigeyan said that the Police Verification Reports on the whole of Karnataka is slow.
“The Police Verification Reports are not satisfactory in the whole state. It takes too much time. We have taken up the matter with the state government and the authority concerned,” he said.
The city police admit there is a delay in the process.
“We know that pendency of passport applications is increasing. The State government and the city police are aware of the pendency. We have realised the problem and are holding review meetings with the jurisdictional police inspectors,” Kamal Pant said.
Police verification is the most crucial part in the whole process of issuance of passport. This also involves legwork and policemen will have to physically inspect the residential address and also the applicant at his house, he said.
The city police have decided to simplify the verification forms so as to enable the constables visiting the houses to complete the process at the earliest.
“One of the reasons for the high number of pendency is due to non-availability of applicants at the residential address. In Tatkal service, a thorough verification happens after the issuance of the passport. In some cases, applicants are either travelling or expected to come back after a trip from abroad. Same is the reason in renewal of passport, with verification pending,” Kamal Pant said.
“We are contemplating to introduce notice method to avoid revisiting of our staff to the same house.
The constables henceforth hand over a notice asking the applicant to visit the police station with documents required,” Pant said.