Getting a passport from the Hyderabad regional passport office is big enough an accomplishment to throw a grand party.Despite repeated outcry and tiding wave of protest from citizen over the corruption, lack of response and lethargy of staff in Regional passport office, the government and the officials chose to shamelessly ignore the public agony busy counting notes of corruption.Ever since, the RPO has cancelled the online issuance of appointments to apply for tatkal passport, hundreds of people beeline infront of the office from 12 am.The sight of hundreds of people waiting all midnight, washing, bathing and performing their ablutations on the pavement, fighting thieves who often snatch chains and valuables from them and getting into physical abuse with people who jump the line explains the shocking state of affairs in the regional passport office.
Only 300 coupons are given every day in the morning at 10 am to people who want to apply for passport in tatkal and people wait for 12 to 14 hours to get the token. Those who can't wait on the pavements all night, hire substitutes waiters for them by paying them Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. Of the 300 tokens the passport office issues every day, the local police hands in glove with the passport staff sells 100 tokens for Rs 2000 each. The lodges, passport agents, local cops, eateries, passport office staff, combindely prey on the poor applicants who wait in hope to get a token.
Ocassionally the local police resorts to lathi charge on applicants due to 'jumping line' fights. The RPO doesn't have a toilet for the applicants too.
"I went three days in a row at 5 am and there were already 500 people waiting in the que. A few agents take Rs 500 from us to get us jump the line a few place to better our chances of getting a token. This often leads to fights between people and injury.Wonder if we live in a civilised country where people get injured to get a passport" says N Kartik, a student who got his passport through 'influence' since standing in que never worked. "People end up paying Rs 1000 to get priority in the line.I had to wait for three hours to get to enquiry and four months since my application and I haven't yet got my passport.There are numerous agents volunteering to do the work for you through other channels" says Lt Col Gourav Ray with application id HYDD00309510.
The Wednesday passport adalats where applicants can convey their griviences has been cancelled for unknown reasons. MLAs and MPs in the city are flooded with hundreds of requests from the people in their constituency to reccomend their application or put a word for them. Secunderabad MLA Jayasudha admits the grim situation and says she had to put a 'No Passport reccomendation' board outside her office since hundreds of people come to her every day."A few women cry and request me to reccomend their application.Most of these applicants are genuine and the passport officials tell me that they are getting thousands of MLA letters every day and so I had to put the board.RPO keeps telling me that the situation will improve" Jayasudha says.
The passport office staff is beyond debate the most harsh, rude and humiliating in the country say applicants. Over 50,000 applications are pending in the office and timely promises to fix staff shortage have not been kept.Like in Bengaluru, though the Ministry of external affairs proposed to start passport seva centres with TCS the project never took off in Hyderabad. City MLAs Kishan Reddy, Sashidhar Reddy, MP Asaduddin Owaisi and others have repeatedly raised the issue in the Parliament and Assembly in vain.Hyderabad regional passport office which issues passport to over 16 districts in AP is the highest revenue earning passport office in the country that issues 2 lakh passports every year. Despite mounting public anger over illtreatment, unending delay and corruption, the regional passport officer G Srinivas is inaccesible for comment on the issue, in commensurate with the reputation of his office and staff.
(Published in Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad)
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