Jamshedpur , March 19 : State’s first Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) under Jharkhand postal circle was inaugurated at Jamshedpur head post office in Bistupur on Sunday. The new facility was inaugurated in the presence of State food and civil supplies minister Saryu Roy and MP Bidhyut Baran Mahto.
As per the new initiative the post office can issue fresh passports as well as renew expired ones. This is the first time that the postal department has been given the key responsibility of issuing passports. Earlier, its role was limited up to distributing and collecting passport application forms.
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 Ranchi.
Addressing the gathering chief postmaster-general Anil Kumar said besides the steel city in East Singhbhum district and the coal town, passport centres would also be opened in Chaibasa (West Singhbhum), Hazaribagh, Giridih, Gumla, Ramgarh, Daltonganj (Palamau), Deoghar, Dumka and Bokaro.
Anil Kumar, chief postmaster general, said that the head post offices of these districts will serve as front offices for passport service. It is an ambitious initiative and it will help people a lot. The new system will come as a major relief for people who currently have to visit Ranchi to get their passports.
It will also lessen the burden on regional passport office, which for instance, had had to process around 80,000 applications last year alone.
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.
The basic training of four postal officials from Jamshedpur and Dhanbad has been conducted and they also Mysore for a technical programme. Regional passport officers will train the postal department employees on processing an application.
Residents of the district 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.