By Our Spl Correspondent
Shillong: Shillong will soon have a full fledged passport office, informs Regional Passport Officer (RTO) Armstrong Changsan. The passport office will be located at the old office of the Directorate of Sports which is being given a face-lift.
Changsan has been visiting Shillong regularly since last year to firm up this proposal. “I have been pushing this project and I will ensure it takes off,” Changsan had told this correspondent last year.
Meanwhile Principal Secretary (Home) Passports, Hector Marwein, informed that the facility would start by September-October this year. It will initially serve as a Seva Kendra (help desk) where people can submit all their documents in Shillong but the papers will still have to be sent to the Regional Passport Office at Guwahati. This is the first step, following which Shillong will have a full-fledged passport office.
At present getting a passport entails a lot of problems for passport seekers. Many take the assistance of touts who charge them a bomb. A passport applicant speaking to this correspondent said, “The RTO does not accept certified photo-copies of birth certificates and qualification certificates and we cannot send the originals by post lest they get misplaced. So we have to necessarily visit the RTO at Guwahati and spend time and money both of which are avoidable if a help desk is set up at Shillong to verify the original documents.”
Last year a group of students from Nagaland had failed to attend a global youth conference at Australia because they could not get their passports on time. On enquiry from the RTO they found that the police office actually delayed in sending the investigation reports.
A similar problem is faced by most passport applicants from Meghalaya as well. The investigation report tends to sit at the police desk for weeks and months. Red tape continues to dog most departments and the Regional Passport Office, Guwahati has often been accused of unnecessary delay in clearing a passport application and of unduly harassing applicants.
The Shillong office might help cut the red tape, many feel.