KOCHI: The Regional Passport Office (RPO) here has bagged the Ministry of External Affairs’(MEA) Best Passport Office Award for 2016-2017 in the ‘A’ category. This is the fourth back-to-back ‘Passport Seva Puraskar’ won by the Kochi Regional Passport Office.
External Affairs Minister(EAM) Sushma Swaraj will present the Award to Regional Passport Officer Prasanth Chandran at a function to be held in New Delhi on Friday.
“Indeed, this is a proud moment as we retained our top billing for the fourth straight time,” said Chandran.
Kochi RPO scored 9.85 out of 10 - it had got 8.48 last time round - to secure the top spot after edging out Jalandhar Passport Office (9.75) and Ahmedabad Passport Office(9.35) to second and third position, respectively.
Besides,in category B (medium-sized Passport Offices) Thiruvananthapuram, Malappuram and Kozhikode RPOs finished among the top three. Thiruvananthapuram RPO scored 9.4 - a betterment of the 7.57 it had attained last time - to clinch the number one spot while Malappuram has been placed second with 9.3 out of 10.
Kozhikode RPO and Madurai RPO both had a score of 9.1 to finish a joint third.
According to the RPO Kochi sources, the winning RPO is adjudged on the basis of quality of service provided by the respective Passport Offices. Mainly the RPOs are judged on the basis of four parameters - quality of service rendered, number of files handled, speed with which passport applications are processed and number of passports issued.
Kochi RPO scored 9.85 out of 10 to secure the top spot.
Jalandhar Passport Office (9.75) and Ahmedabad Passport Office (9.35) bagged second and third positions, respectively.