BENGALURU: A retired headmaster from Mangaluru, who lost both his hands in an accident, is getting his passport for the first time, thanks to the waiver of the mandatory fingerprint biometrics for authentication purposes by the State’s Regional Passport Office. K Sundara and his wife H K Devaki plan to travel to Finland shortly to stay with his son employed there.
Regional Passport Officer, Bengaluru, K Krishna wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs citing the present condition of the septuagenarian and seeking waiver of the biometrics. “This is the first time I am coming across an applicant in this situation. The Ministry permitted us to use his toe impression on an ink pad in place of the signature required below the photo on the application,” Krishna told TNIE.
Sundara was given priority after he re-applied for the passport at the Mysuru Post Office Passport Seva Kendra in the last week of February. “It has already been dispatched to his residence now,” he added.
The delighted senior citizen, who retired as headmaster at Higher Primary School at Dakshina Kannada, purchased a house at Mysuru and resides there now. He makes use of prosthetic hands now.
He told TNIE, “I am really happy about the manner in which everyone, right from Mysuru to Bengaluru and Delhi, went out of their way to help my case. My wife and I had both initially applied on January 30. She got her passport shortly but I could not get mine due to my peculiar circumstances. We planned to visit our son Shivaraj, employed as a Senior Software Engineer at Nokia Siemens in Finland. I was told to wait a little as special consent had to be obtained due to my peculiar circumstances. I really thought it would not be possible for me to get a passport following the loss of my hands eight years ago.”
Sundara lost his hands on the eve of the engagement ceremony of his daughter K S Shilpa when he was plucking coconuts using a steel rod. It touched an electric wire above and both his hands suffered severe burn injuries.
Shilpa said, “My father never felt the need for a passport earlier and had never applied. It is the first time he is trying to get one. We are very thankful to all the postal and passport staff for going out of their way to help us out.”