India’s Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar has said that the Central government is working to implement e-Passports to facilitate easier international travel. He added that e-passports will provide protection against identity theft, and enhance data security. Jaishankar was speaking on the occasion of the Passport Seva Divas.
While reiterating the government’s dedication to enhancing the citizen experience and public service, the MEA and the Central Passport Organization reaffirmed their commitment to offering Indian citizens efficient, dependable, accessible, transparent, and speedy passport and passport-related services.
S Jaishankar stressed in his speech that even during the challenging times of the COVID-19 outbreak, passport services were offered. He also added that the Ministry rose to the occasion to meet the increased demand for passport services built up due to two and half years of the pandemic,
The passport authorities dealt swiftly with a monthly average of 9.0 lakhs, Jaishankar said that the government has been successful in simplifying the passport rules and procedures for the citizens.
“Ministry is continuously working with States/UTs police to reduce the time taken for police verification: the mPassport Police App is now used in 22 States/UTs covering 8275 Police Stations.” Jaishankar said.
The Passport Seva System is integrated with the DigiLocker system now and the ministry has collaborated with the Department of Posts for operationilising 428 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) to serve citizens at their doorsteps.
Passport issuance systems is integrated in 178 of our Embassies and Consulates abroad which can help diaspora to have access to the passport-related services to the Diaspora efficiently through a centralized and secure application. Passport Seva Programme (PSP) will launch PSP V2.0, an upgraded and better version of PSP V1.0, in recognition of the need to continuously improve the quality of passport services.
