The second weekend Passport Mela organised by the Ministry of External Affairs drew people in their hundreds to the Regional Passport Office (RPO) and at the Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) in Bengaluru.
A total of 2436 tokens were issued across various PSKs and RPOs in the State out of which 1830 applications were rejected. Rush at various centres in the city was at its peak during early morning hours, but was less in the afternoon as the last day of the Passport Mela wound up at 2 pm on Sunday.
“This kind of initiative is a good move. Last time I visited the Kormangala RPO to apply for a passport during the Passport Mela my application was rejected as I failed to give address proof. They did not accept the rental agreement issued on stamp paper. So I had to approach the tahasildar in my jurisdiction to get an attestation on the same, which is the procedure to be followed if you don’t have a permanent address. “This time when I applied for the passport at Kormangala with all the documents, things went smoothly and my application was taken into consideration,” said an employee of a tech company, Rajini Kumari.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, K.J. Srinivasa, Regional Passport Officer, Bengaluru said “We feel that Passport Mela has helped to a great extent in bringing down the demand. Since it was the holiday season, the demand had shot up drastically.” “We were receiving around 2,000 people at the PSVs and RPO during the Mela. Handling this huge crowd was a problem as we have limited resources.” he said.
Citizens who missed out on the passport mela need not despair as a new scheme has been initiated from July 2.
\“From July 2, things will be more sorted as citizens will be served on first come first serve basis at the Kormangala RPO. First 200 walk-ins at Kormangala RPO will be issued with an application. This is a special campaign from July 2 to July 31 which is aimed to help people who have failed to get an appointment. The campaign is only for issuing a fresh passport and for reissuing of passport. The campaign will not entertain tatkal aspirants,” explained Mr Srinivasa.