BENGALURU: The Lalbagh Passport Seva Kendra, with the help of the Regional Passport Office, broke its own record of quick issual of passport during emergencies and displayed remarkable empathy by issuing the passport within three hours of submission of the application, to a homemaker from Electronics City, on Thursday.
Homemaker Brinda Devi will be boarding a flight to Jakarta, Indonesia from Bengaluru late on Thursday to be with her husband during an emergency surgery.
Kumaresan (56), a resident of Bengaluru employed as the manager of a Spinning Mill at Jakarta, suffered a heart attack late Wednesday night, his nephew Ramesh Kumar told TNIE. He was advised to opt for an urgent operation.
“My aunt had a passport but we realised only when we wanted to book tickets that it had expired. We booked an online appointment at Lal Bagh Seva Kendra. On learning about our situation, they guided us completely, and apprised the RPO head office of our situation.”
Regional Passport Officer K Krishna told TNIE, “The online appointment was available only two weeks from the date of application. I ensured the appointment was given to them immediately at Lal Bagh. The family was asked to reach there at 1 pm with the necessary documents. They handed them all and our office sent it to us online.”
Passports can only be printed at the head office. “After checks, we printed the passport by 4 pm and asked the family to come over and collect the passport,” he explained.
Kumar said, “There was complete co-operation from all officials who were empathetic to her plight. We are so relieved it came through so quickly, and are on our way to board our flight to Indonesia.”
The police verification will be done later in this instance, Krishna said.