MEA met increased demand for passport services with monthly average of 9 lakh: Jaishankar

New Delhi, Jun 24: The External Affairs Ministry rose to the occasion to meet the increased demand for passport services built up due to two-and-half-years of the Covid pandemic, and recorded an impressive monthly average of 9 lakh, Union minister S Jaishankar said on Friday.

In his message on the occasion of Passport Seva Divas, the external affairs minister said passport services were rendered with the same vigour and enthusiasm even during the testing times of the Covid pandemic.

The ministry rose to the occasion to meet the increased demand for passport services built up due to two and half years of the pandemic, and dealt it swiftly with an impressive monthly average of 9 lakh, with 4.50 lakh additional applications granted in the last one month, thus setting a record, Jaishankar said.

"As we commemorate the Passport Seva Divas on 24 June this year, we continue our commitment to deliver the next level of citizen experience. Looking back, I am glad that we have been very successful in simplification of the passport rules and procedures for the citizens," he said.

To further smoothen the passport delivery ecosystem, the ministry is continuously working with state, and union territory police forces to reduce the time taken for police verification -- the mPassport Police App is now used in 22 States/UTs covering 8,275 police stations, he said.

The Passport Seva System has also been integrated with DigiLocker system to facilitate paperless documentation process, he noted. The ministry in collaboration with Department of Posts operationalised 428 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKS) to reach out to our citizens at their doorsteps, Jaishankar said.

Recognising the need to continually improve the quality of passport services, the Passport Seva Programme (PSP) will be embarking on PSP V2.0, an improved and up graded version of P SP V1.0, which would ensure a digital ecosystem among all stakeholders and offer enhanced passport services to citizens, he said.