The police had to open lathicharge as the passport applicants barged into the regional passport office in the city on Tuesday.
The regional passport office generally issues nearly 160 tokens every day at 9.30 am for tatkal passport applications. Hundreds of citizens sleep all night before the office in order to obtain these tokens. On Tuesday, there were nearly 600 people awaiting before the office to obtain the tokens, but just 160 tokens were issued.
The distressed people, who did not get tokens barged in. The police discussed the problem with the regional passport officer and arranged tokens for all the people waiting.
Applicant’s claim that the regional passport office has become inadequate. Authorities in the passport office explained that one lakh applications have accumulated in the office and it is unable to deal with so many applications as it has very less staff.
The Joint Secretary of Ministry of External Affairs said that the situation at the passport office will be soon improved even though there is rise in the number of passport applications. Hyderabad office is issuing nearly three lakh passports annually and it is continuously increasing every year.
He said that Passport Seva Project will be soon implemented to totally improve the systems of passport issuance.