MEA joins hands with Department of Posts for opening of first batch of new POPSK

New Delhi [India], Feb. 9 (ANI): The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Department of Posts (DOP) last month announced their decision to utilize the Head Post Offices (HPO) in the various States as Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) for delivering passport related services to the people. The objective of this partnership is to extend passport services on a larger scale and to ensure wider area coverage of the travel document. The pilot projects for this joint venture between MEA and DOP was inaugurated on January 25, 2017 at the HPO at Mysuru in Karnataka by Ananth Kumar, Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs; and at the Post Office at Dahod in Gujarat by Gen (Retd.) V.K.Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, and Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, Government of India. The POPSK at these two places have been running successfully since their inauguration. One hundred appointments are being released every day for each of these POPSK. With the successful operationalization of these two pilot projects, the Government has now decided to scale up this programme by opening 56 POPSKs at the following places in the first batch of expansion: 1. Andhra Pradesh- Kurnool and Kadappa 2. Assam- Silchar 3. Bihar- Purnia, Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Siwan 4. Chhattisgarh- Surguja 5. Daman- Daman 6. Diu- Diu 7. Dadra and Nagar Haveli- Silvasa 8. Delhi- East Delhi, Noth East Delhi, North West Delhi, South Delhi, West Delhi 9. Gujarat- Bhuj, Palanpur 10. Haryana- Hisar, Karnal 11. Faridabad 12. Himachal Pradesh- Palampur, Hamirpur 13. J-K- Leh, Udhampur 14. Jharkhand- Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Deoghar 15. Karnataka- Belgaum, Devangere, Hassan, Gulbarga 16. Kerala- Pathanamthitta, Kasargod 17. Lakshadweep- Kavaratti 18. Madhya Pradesh- Gwalior, Satna, Jabalpur, Vidisha 19. Odisha- Rourkela, Sambalpur, Koraput 20. Rajasthan- Kota, Jaisalmer, Jhunjhunu, Bikaner, Jhalawar 21. Tamil Nadu- Salem, Vellore 22. Telangana- Mehbubnagar, Warangal 23. West Bengal- Asansol, Nadia, North Dinajpur, North Kolkata The MEA and DOP are working closely for the early commencement of passport related services at the above mentioned POPSK. Once fully functional, applicants who apply for their passports on-line through the Passport Portal will be able to schedule an appointment at the above POPSK to complete the formalities necessary prior to the issue of the passport. Following the liberalization of passport policies announced on 23 December, 2016, we have seen nearly 30 percent surge in demand for passports. For example, a record number of 53,400 applications were processed on 7.2.2017 out of which 49,259 were fresh applications. This is the highest since the commencement of the Passport Seva Project. Our Passport Offices are conducting special Passport Melas during the weekends to cater to the increasing demand for passports. The pilot projects of the Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) have been running successfully at Mysuru and Dahod. We have been releasing 100 appointments for Mysuru and Dahod POPSK per day with cent per cent utilization. Appointments for Mysuru are now available in ten days while at Dahod it is available the next day. These are clear indicators that the liberalization of the passport policies and opening of the POPSK have been successful efforts of the Government that have been welcomed by our citizens. We expect that opening of these additional POPSK would further help our citizens in getting passports easily. (ANI)