Mr. Salman Khurshid
Hon’ble Minister of External Affairs,
Govt. of India, New Delhi.
Subject: Regarding problems being faced by general public at RPO Amritsar – Request for remedial measures on urgent basis.
Esteemed Sir,
We introduce ourselves as a Non Profit, Non-Government Organization working for the betterment of ecology and mankind since 1993. Perturbed by the condition of numerous applicants aspiring to get their passports, we are constrained to bring to your knowledge following few facts:-
1. That the Passport Office, Amritsar caters to eight districts namely Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Fazilka and Pathankot. Whereas PSKs of district Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur are restricted to their respective districts only, services of Ludhiana PSK are limited to four districts.
2. That the public under the jurisdiction of Amritsar PSK is facing lot of harassment as taking appointment has become a daunting task as the website opens at 5:00 PM and appointments finishes within 3 seconds. The local dealers / cyber café owners charge upto Rs. 1000/- for taking appointment alone. In case of Jalandhar PSK one can seek online appointment any time, as it is available for 24 hours.
3. That in case of minors / senior citizens, who as per information available on website are entitled for ‘Walk-In’ without taking appointment, have to visit first RPO office for getting the file approved which is also a cumbersome process as the people under the exempted category are unable to bear the brunt of standing for long hours in lines from 7:00 AM first for getting approval of ‘Walk-In’ and then visiting PSK. Moreover, senior citizens are left a harassed lot as it becomes almost impossible for them to reach the RPO early in the morning from far-flung places. Whereas it was a good initiative of Govt. of India to allow the minors and senior citizens to visit PSKs without appointment, the procedure followed locally has made it quite tedious and difficult for them to apply for passport.
In the light of the facts, we suggest that another PSK may please be opened either in Amritsar or any other District on geographical suitability for the facilitation of the public.
We further request your goodself to look into the matter personally and come to the rescue of innocent public who are forced to face harassment while applying for Passport.
With profound regards,
Sd/-
(Gurbhej Singh Sandhu)
General Secretary
+91-9779727002
COPY TO:-
Maharani Perneet Kaur, Hon’ble MoS for External Affairs, Govt. of India, New Delhi for taking up the matter in the interest of people of Punjab. We may bring to her kind notice that the area that Amritsar RPO / PSK caters to spreads across all three regions of Punjab i.e. Majha, Doaba and Malwa.
