Times
of India: Chennai: Saturday, 24 January 2015.
The regional
passport office has opened a social audit cell, which will help applicants
conduct audits of their passport applications.
The
applicants will be provided with details on why applications are pending,
reasons for the delay and what requires to be done to speed up the process.
The cell will
provide applicants all information guaranteed under the Right to Information
(RTI) Act. The public grievance redressal mechanism has been further
strengthened to facilitate speedy clearance of pending cases.
Applicants,
whose passport have been pending for a long time, can meet the deputy passport
officer or regional passport officer without any appointment on all working
days from 9am to 12.30pm except on Tuesday at the regional passport office in
Rayala Towers, Anna Salai.
This is being
done to empower applicants, especially from rural areas and enhance
transparency of the passport office, an official release said.
To help
applicants, an official has been deployed at the social audit cell. Copies of
documents such as police verification reports with police remarks, file notes
of verification officer or granting officer regarding applications on hold,
details of previous or lost passports and details about information sought from
Indian missions abroad will be provided.
Normally,
from the Chennai RPO, passports are issued between two and 25 days from the
date of application, depending on the requirement of police verification
reports. Applicants whose passports have been delayed can now approach the cell
for help.
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