Thiruvananthapuram: The centre’s decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for Tatkaal and Post Police Verification (PPV) passports could relieve many applicants.
At present many applications are getting rejected for want of the verification certificate which has to be issued by a certain category of officials like gazetted officers, judicial officers and senior All India Service officers.
According to the Thiruvananthapuram regional passport officer Ashique Karattil, about three to five percent Tatkaal applications were being rejected for want of proper verification certificate. Hence the new decision to do away with verification certificate would be of help to many.
As per the fresh norms came into effect on January 18, Aadhaar, a self-declaration and any two of the 12 other commonly used identify cards like Voter ID or ration card are required for Tatkaal and PPV passport application.
Earlier, Aadhaar was not mandatory, but the verification certificate was mandatory for Tatkal applications.
Normally officials will issue verification certificate only to those personally known to them. Hence many applicants were finding it difficult to get it.
“Getting an Aadhaar might be easier for the ordinary people than getting a verification certificate. Hence the new change could be beneficial to them. Even now about 70 percent of the applicants are submitting Aadhaar as a basic ID,” said Mr Karattil.
At present, about 4,000 new applications are being submitted in Kerala every day. Of this, about ten percent are Tatkal applications.
Kerala is having the highest number of valid passport holders - 80 lakhs. About 23 percent of Kerala population are having passports, whereas the national average is only five.
While a standard passport would take a minimum of seven days for dispatching, Tatkal will go out in three days. It needs an additional Rs 2,000 to the normal fee of Rs 1,500.
PPV passport applications did not require an additional Tatkal fee. But there would not be a written norm that it would be issued within three days.
However, some passport offices like the Thiruvananthapuram regional passport office are now able to dispatch such passports within 24 hours.
