Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Aug 28: Speaking at a press conference convened in the city on Wednesday August 27, office-bearers of Passport Office Action Committee opined that a full-fledged passport office would have started functioning in the city long back, if the union labour minister Oscar Fernandes, Congress leaders Veerappa Moily and Janardan Poojary had evinced interest in the proposal. In spite of wielding enormous influence in the central government, they did not put in earnest efforts for materializing this demand, they rued.
Hamid Kandak and Ivan D'Souza squarely blamed these leaders for not having the political will to meet this long-pending demand of the local people. The city conforms to all the norms relating to the setting up of a passport office here, but lack of political will has robbed the city of its genuine need, they felt.
The office presently functioning here, works as a passport applications receiving office, having jurisdiction over Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Shimoga, Hassan and Kodagu districts. Annually it receives around 56,000 applications for passports. Still, the government has failed to convert it into a full-fledged passport office. The minister for foreign affairs has through a letter, expressed the department's inability to open a passport office here because of staff shortage, they revealed.
The letter has mooted setting up of a passport facilitation centre (PFC) instead of the full time passport office. "We do not want PFC but a full-fledged passport office here. Even places processing 22,000 applications have been allotted with passport offices. There are four passport offices each in Kerala and Maharashtra, three in Tamil Nadu and two in Andhra Pradesh while Karnataka in its lone office, handles 2,70,000 applications annually. The state in comparison, is eligible for three passport offices," they argued.
A delegation will soon meet the union ministers, pressing for our demand. If no decision is taken within 15 days thereafter, the committee will go ahead with protest programmes including hunger strike, they said.
Manoraj, Mithun Rai and Mohammed Rafiq were present.