Mysuru gets India’s 1st post office passport kendra

Mysuru gets India’s 1st post office passport kendra MYSURU: Mysuru got India's first Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK), which will offer all passport related services on the lines of PSKs, on Wednesday. The service will soon be expanded to neighbouring districts too. It has been named as POPSK because the ministry of external affairs (MEA) has tied up with the postal department to offer passport related services through a network of post offices. It is the pilot project of MEA with Mysuru being the first to launch the service and its authorities have plans to expand the network to facilitate residents in the rest of India. A similar service was launched at Dahod in Gujarat the same day. Mysuru is the fifth place in Karnataka to get a passport office after Bengaluru (two centres), Mangaluru, Hubballi and Kalaburgi.  Regional passport officers will train the postal department employees on processing an application. Except printing and dispatch of passports, the POPSK will carry out all other operations like receiving an application, document verification and fee collection from applicants and facilitating further process by sending it to the regional passport office in Bengaluru. Residents in these two districts may apply for fresh passports, renewal or for any related services online to fix an appointment and then visit the POPSK on the scheduled date to complete the formalities.

Parliamentary affairs minister Ananthkumar on Wednesday opened the facility which will cater to the needs of the people in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts having a population of 40 lakhs together.

It is a pilot project and the government has plans to open similar centres in all revenue districts across India using post office network. This will facilitate in setting up a centre within a short period instead of creating a separate facility for handling passport related services.

As many as 6.5 lakh passports are issued in Karnataka every year, of which 45,000 are alone from Mysuru and Chamarajanagar region.

It has been a long pending demand for the passport centre which has been fulfilled now. Terming the collaboration of MEA and India Post as a happy marriage, the minister said partnership is an important step in addressing the need for passport centres across India. He anticipated the number of applicants in Mysuru may cross one lakh mark.

Disclosing that there are more than 750 revenue districts in the country, with more than 650 head post offices, the minister said that based on the outcome of the pilot project, government plans to scale up this collaboration. DM Mulay, secretary, (Consular, Passport, Visa and Overseas Indian Affairs), MEA, on Wednesday claimed that India ranks third in offering passport services in world.

China tops the list followed by the US. India stands third with every year processing nearly 2 crore passport applications and issuing on an average 60,000 passports daily. India has 89 PSKs as extended arms of 38 passport offices providing services and the collaboration with India Post is a historic move. We plan to open similar centres in all 650 head post offices in coming days. Mulay said that today passport is not a luxury but has become necessary as many go abroad for education, health and tourism or to meet relatives.

Parliamentary affairs minister Ananthkumar promised to fulfill the demands of bringing Mysuru back on the air map and setting up two more Kendriya Vidyalayas in Mysuru.