A year after the Passport Sewa Kendra project was launched, the Jaipur regional passport office was awarded ‘Certificate of Excellence’ by the Ministry of external affairs. The centre won the award in the category B passport offices in the country for achieving high standards of services during 2012-13. The award was accepted by regional passport officer Shrawan Kumar from External affairs minister Salman Khurshid.
“There are three categories of passport offices. Those which get more than two lakh applications for passport every year are in category A, those with one to two lakh applications are in category B and the ones with less than a lakh applications are in category C,” said Shrawan Kumar.
In Rajasthan, the demand for passport services has been growing rapidly. The passport office, Jaipur processed 2.05 lakh applications in 2011, nearly 14% increase from 2010. In the last one year, 2.50 passports have been issued and most applications are from Shekhawati, Dungarpur and Banswara regions.
The Passport Sewa Kendra project launched by the MEA is a flagship initiative of the central government under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) to improve delivery of public services and overall governance.
The project is one of the largest e-governance projects under the NeGP for streamlining passport services. Under the ambitious project, the MEA in collaboration with TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), was to issue new passports within three working days and a ‘tatkal’ one on the same day, after police verification.
src: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Jaipur-passport-office-gets-award/articleshow/21259530.cms