CHENNAI: Lost your passport or some other important document? You need not go through the pain of visiting a police station to lodge a complaint and then again for the ‘non-traceable’ certificate.
The State Crime Records Bureau is developing an online portal in the State police’s website www.eservices.tnpolice.gov.in, where people can lodge a complaint on missing important documents such as passports and education certificates. The portal would generate an online receipt that can be printed to apply to the departments concerned for a fresh copy of the lost documents.
At present, if a document is lost, you have to file a written complaint in the police station under whose jurisdiction you lost it. After a few days of lodging the complaint, a “non-traceable” certificate has to be obtained from the same police station. Only on submission of this certificate, the agencies or institutions concerned would consider reissuing a fresh copy of the documents.
Police officers hope the new portal would eliminate this tedious process and make it simple for the public and the police too.
The portal is being developed by the National Information Centre (NIC), the Central government unit that handles the IT requirements of government agencies. Officials hope it will be ready by April.
“It will be easy and quick process. Within minutes after registering the complaint, the receipt will be generated. The complainant can take either a printout or save a screenshot to apply for a fresh set of documents from the concerned agency,” a police officer told Express.
The officers said that to check the authenticity of the complaint, the user had to provide the mobile number and upload any of the government-issued photo ID cards to get the complaint registered. A copy of the complaint would be available at the concerned local police station. Government agencies that issue such documents would have provisions to verify the authenticity of the receipt generated by the system. The responsibility of verifying the authenticity of the applicant for fresh documents would lie with the concerned agency that issues the documents.
“This facility mainly aims to benefit senior citizens and people coming from other states who face language barriers. Filing a complaint online makes it easy for them. However, there will be a disclaimer mentioned in the site saying fake complaints are punishable,” said the officer.
Based on the success of the web portal, the officer said developing it as a mobile app would be considered.