Even as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) claims to have successfully implemented its new Passport Seva Project across the country, it has kept out a major stakeholder from within its ambit—over 180 Indian missions and consulates around the world—which could cause potential security issues.
The MEA had launched the Passport Seva Project in 2010 as a panacea for the perennial problem of touts and delays in issuing the essential travel document. The backbone of the project, the database known as Passport Related Information Data Exchange (PRIDE) as well as the front-end of the passport offices, had been developed and operated by private IT major Tata Consultancy Services.
However, in the 180-odd Indian embassies and consulates, the passport services are still being run on the old software provided by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
“We should be having an integrated system for running passport services, but right now there are two parallel systems within the ministry,” said a senior government official.
The two software systems have no direct link between each other, which has raised red flags that there may be security lacuna in the process of issuing passports at the missions. “The missions only have a desktop access to the databases which allows them to check for individual entries, after making specific inputs,” he said.
So, on receiving an application, say for reissuing a duplicate passport, the passport issuance authority (PIA), usually the consular officer, should check manually in the centralised database, before granting the request.
“If there had been an integrated system, then the application would have been checked automatically with the database to find out any discrepancies. Now, there is always scope of human error, which could get compounded due to the sensitivity of the passport issuances,” said the senior official.
Around five lakh passports are issued by Indian embassies and posts worldwide, mostly as replacement for lost, stolen or damaged documents. There are only a very small number of new passport applications submitted outside the country, mainly for newborn children.
Interestingly, due to reports of delays in getting online appointments in some of the Passport Seva Kendras for passport renewal, there have been reports that citizens prefer to apply abroad at Indian missions, where it is a walk-in service.
The linkage problem even came to the notice of the parliamentary standing committee of external affairs, which in its latest report, noted that it was “concerned to note that there is no connectivity between the Central Passport Organization (CPO) and the Missions/Posts”.
It had directed the MEA to prepare a “dedicated action plan and implement it with a fixed time frame for establishing connectivity between the Headquarters and Missions/Posts as well as with the Passport Seva Application.”
But, according to officials, bringing the missions and posts within the ambit of Passport Seva Project is easier said than done.
While the NIC has been asking the MEA to give a clear answer if it plans to continue to use software in the Indian embassies and consulates, South Block still has to make up its mind.
“Integration with Passport Seva Project would require floating a new tender to integrate the missions and posts, as they are not included in the original contract with TCS,” he said.