UP police to re-verify passports issued in last decade

Lucknow, Dec 11 (UNI) In an effort to check issuance of passports to anti-national elements, the Uttar Pradesh government will re-verify all passports issued from the state in the last 10 years.

Additional Director General of police (Crime/Law and Order) Brij Lal told reporters here that Regional Passport Offices(RPOs) here, in Bareilly and Ghaziabad have been asked to send details of all the passports issued by them in the last decade. So far, the regional passport office here has sent a CD of the data.

''IG (Crime) will monitor the implementation of the exercise in all the districts,'' he said.

''There had been reports that some people have got several passports issued under fake names...it is a long process and no deadlines have been set so far,'' the ADG added.

He said each and every passport issued by the three RPOs would be re-verified.

Several anti-nationals, including don Abu Salem had managed to get a passport issued under an assumed name.

A quick look at the official websites of the three RPOs showed that over eight lakh passports were issued by them in the last one year. ''As of now, we do not know the exact number of passports issued in the last ten years, but the number could be in lakhs,'' Mr Brij Lal said.

The RPO here was opened in December 1956. It deals with passport requests from Bundelkhand, Eastern and Central Uttar Pradesh covering 48 districts. This Office provides passport services to around 2.75 lakh people every year.Initially the jurisdiction of this office extended to all the districts of UP and MP, but passport office at Bhopal , Bareilly and Ghaziabad were set up later.

The RPO, Bareilly caters to 24 districts comprising 11 districts of Uttar Pradesh and all 13 districts of Uttarakhand. The RPO, Ghaziabad caters to 11 districts of west UP.

UNI