Passport office doesn’t accept passport as ID proof

Rajesh Kalra, 29 April 2010, 03:07 PM IST

If this post makes you feel you are looking at a letter to the Editor by an irate citizen, exasperated with the red tape and stupidity of government offices involved in public dealings, please don’t be surprised. For, that is the intention.

The post deals with the experience of an individual who went for the renewal of his son’s passport who is yet to turn 12. The passport was still valid for another three months.

Armed with filled-up forms and annexures and affidavits and photographs, and all that he thought would suffice that included the child’s passport, and his and his wife’s passport (and their copies), he approached the Regional Passport Office in Delhi.

Just a bit of digression from the subject here, if you want to see government’s public dealing at its worst, you must visit the passport office anywhere in the country, and if you set your sights higher and want to see the worst, then it should be the Delhi Development Authority’s office. Experiences here make the transport authorities all over the country that dole out driving licenses seem angels in comparison.

Now back to this individual and his quest for renewing his son’s passport. As he waited outside in hot and dusty conditions for the office to open, he noticed a constant stream of individuals who would enter the building, to borrow from a line in our passports, ‘without any let or hindrance’. No marks for guessing who these were. They are the best known facilitators known to Indians and are referred to as touts.

Our individual in question is, however, a law abiding citizen and waited patiently for office hours to enter, pick up his number and then await a call from one of the counters. To be fair, he did not have to wait too long before his number was called. And that is where the fun began.

A lady officer first sized him up with a look that he felt conveyed: Why the hell didn’t you take the services of a tout? Before turning her attention to the documents he had submitted. To say that this individual was unprepared would be incorrect. For every question she put up, he had an answer and a document in support, till it came to the child’s address proof.

The conversation between her and this individual went along these lines:-

Lady Officer (LO): Where is the child’s proof of address?

Individual (I): What proof can I bring of a child except my own proof of address?

LO: Ok show me that proof.

I: I have attached the copies and here are the originals. (he showed this lady his and his wife’s valid passports)

LO: This is not what I need.

I: But..these are valid passports, issued by you. Here, it even has the address.

LO: I know, but this is not what I need. I need a nationalized bank’s passbook or an MTNL/BSNL telephone bill.

I: But m’me, I don’t have a passbook. My bank does not give me a passbook. And I use mobile phones and even my landline is not MTNL’s.

LO: I am sorry. Your documents are incomplete.

I: But..but..

LO: Please don’t waste my time, there are others in the queue.

By then, those awaiting their turn hounded him out.

Thus ended the hapless individual’s attempt to get his son’s passport renewed the right way. I believe he later caught hold of one of the efficient blokes who could enter the complex at will and his job was finally done without ‘let or hindrance’.

I am not going to comment on the issue, for it has been written about ad-nauseum, but it still beats me that the passport officer rejected the venerated document that its own office had issued. I always thought nothing in the world beats a valid passport for authenticity. Even after I submit all address proofs, for the passport to be issued, the police necessarily does a physical verification.

It is the only document that is accepted all over the world as proof of my identity and address. All over except the very office that issued it.

Jai woe!

Follow Rajesh Kalra on Twitter

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/randomaccess/entry/passport-office-doesn-t-accept
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