Bio-metric passports to be introduced in the country

Shimla, Mar 16 (UNI) Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma today said bio-metric passports will be issued to diplomats and officials from this year for the general public from next year.

Speaking to mediapersons before inaugurating a passport office here, he said the facility would simplify security verification as a chip would contain unique identification features of individual passport holders.

Mr Sharma said Shimla Passport Office was the 32nd in the country and more offices would soon be opened in Amritsar, Madurai, Coimbatore, Raipur and Dehradun.

The fully-computerised Shimla Passport Office would have an online registration facility, while district passport centres at Dharamshala, Mandi, Hamirpur, Nahan and Kalpa would be upgraded and strengthened as regional collection centres, he said.

He said each of these centres would collectively cater to the requirements of people living in the far-flung districts of the state.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had issued 44 lakh passports in the country last year and the numbers would go up substantially after the opening of new offices and modernising of the older ones, he said.

The Ministry receives about 20,000 applications from Himachal Pradesh only and the opening of the passport office here would fulfill the long- pending demands of the people of the state, he said.

To avoid the earlier cumbersome criteria of police verification, he said, only three documents of the a total 14, including electoral photo identity card, PAN, property documents, government or organisational identity card, SC ST card, ration card, driving license, bank or kisan pass book and student identity card, would now be required, he said.

Mr Sharma said, however, there would now only be a post issuance verification to prevent any harassment to the public.

He said the time period for obtaining a passport under the ''tatkal scheme'' has also been reduced to 14 days from 20 while the renewal of an old passport would take only seven days instead of 10 days.

UNI