India Experiences Passport Revolution: S Jaishankar at the Inauguration of 7th Passport Seva Divas

News Bharati    24-Jun-2019
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New Delhi, June 24: “In the last five years of passport services delivered by the Ministry of External Affairs indeed constituted a passport revolution. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister, various initiatives that this Ministry took brought about a visible change in the delivery mechanism of passport services to our citizens both within the country and abroad. Let me assure you that the Minister of State and I would continue to pursue the process of reforms in the delivery of citizen centric services,” said the Union Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. jaishankar in the inauguration of the two-day function of the 7th Passport Seva Divas in New Delhi today.


 

The Passport Seva Divas is celebrated by the Ministry of External Affairs since 2012. The celebration of the 7th Passport Seva Diwas is being held in New Delhi on June 24 and June 25. The function was inaugurated today by the Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. jaishankar, the Secretory to the Department of Posts Anant Narayan Nanda, the Secretory to the CPV & OIA Sanjeev Arora and the Joint Secretory to the CPO and PSP Arun Kumar Chatterjee. Awards were given to the best performing Passport offices and officials as well.

 

“It gives me great pleasure to felicitate all our passport issuing authorities who have strived to ensure transparent and efficient passport delivery services in the country and abroad for the benefit of citizens. Today as we celebrate the Passport Seva Divas, we rededicate ourselves to work towards further improving this system. The mandate of my ministry is to ensure good governance and a transparent, efficient, timely, reliable, assured and accountable pubic service delivery system. As we move ahead, our focus would remain on proactive outreach and further simplification of the rules and processes for issuing passport without compromising legitimate security concerns,” said S. Jaishankar in his address

 The minister stressed the need to make optimal use of the technology. He pointed out that the initiatives like mPassport Seva Mobile App demonstrate how technology can help applicants. The Minister expressed gratitude towards the Minister of Communication Ravi Shankar Prasad for enabling to open 412 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras Since January 2017 together with the 93 Passport Seva Kendras which are already functional, thereby taking the total number of Passport Seva Kendras in the country to 505 today. He assured that the government is taking hard steps to make the proposed PSKs functional as early as possible.
 
Passport Act came into force in India in 1967. Currently India is issuing on an average more than one crore passports every year.
 
 
S. jaishankar Passport Seva Divas Ministry of External Affairs