Dear All,
I think i'm representing a lot of people in this issue. Below is a mail, I tried sending to the highest authority resposnible for hearing such issues. However, it is no surprise that the mail bounced back from this ID also.

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Dear Sir,

Greetings !!

I’m a 28yr old citizen of India, Chennai. It’s a very sad situation that I have to bring to notice the following grievances faced by my family & me for obtaining the passport for my 3month old baby:

During the application:
a. Firstly, there is no clear indication on the 2nd floor of the Chennai office on which queue the applicant should stand on. How do you expect people to find out?

b. I would like to know the role of the security personal in the 2nd floor. Is it to coordinate the people or control the crowd or both? Because most of us there have a feeling that he was not able to perform any of these duties. For instance, he displays barbarism in this behavior when talking to people big and small nor does he clearly tell where one needs to join the queue. A single line seems to have multiple openings. So I want to know if the authorities have designated him with the power of humiliating citizens?

c. The designated appointment time was 3rd May'10 at 10:30am and I was there are much ahead of the time. In spite of that me and all the others (senior citizens) where made to wait until 14:30hrs before the line could start and my turn got completed only at 16:45hrs. Can you imagine if you have to wait for 1 complete working day? I would like to know if this is the case, why do you have an appointment system? Is it malfunctioning, if yes what is being done to correct it?

d. Once I reached the hall where the application needs to be submitted, it was even worse than the busiest fish markets in India..it was in a total kiosks with people try to jump lines, overly crowded, etc..what is the security personal doing within the hall. He is on a chit-chat with someone and once in a while without realizing who is correct and who isn’t, he simply drops by to embarrass people. Can you please explain who is the cause of this mismanagement?

e. After waiting for about 6hrs when I submitted the application, the lady opposite the counter spend less than 60 seconds to see my form, make and assessment and haul at me telling that the babies thumb impression was sufficient on the 1st pages and the parents signature wasn’t required (we had a parents signature & babies impression both). So she refused to accept and my papers came flying outside the little glass opening. Can you imagine how it feels to wait for 6hrs for this, have the authorities designated her the power not just to assess the forms but also hurt the sentiments of any citizen. Finally, I was asked to come on the next day with the old application & a new one also.

f. I made things ready and knowing how things function at the Passport office, I made my arrangements at office by informing that I would be on leave (and forcefully bear a loss of pay). The previous day the lady had informed me to come directly to the counter and submit the form; so as per her instructions I did so. But the actual fun was there were people who had appointments but were unable to trace the beginning of the queue and there were a few like me (backlog cases) trying to accommodate ourselves also. So the big question is whose turn is it 1st. And as expected the security personal is least bothered about this and he just comes once in a while to argue with the wrong people. I must say luckily I made it to the counter and as soon as she got my form, she asks where is the current dates seal on the form? I told her it was she who asked me to come directly with the documents and so did I. So I was asked to go back, get the seal and join the line again. That’s fine, now what’s interesting is that the person who stamps the papers appears only once every hour; stamps and vanishes. However I was lucky I did not have to wait for an hour for him. Once I got the seal, I went back and struggled my way through the crowd and the queue and waited for my turn. When my form was examined I was told that the corrections where correct, but the new application was not an Internet application (because the reference number was missing on it). I had purchased the application from the passport office. However, the original application had the reference number. Now, there are no prizes for guessing that I was sent back and asked to come the following day with a new application.

g. Finally on a another day (after bunking office) I appeared the 3rd time assuming that I’m 100% prepared and after the usual struggle and hassles as mentioned above reached my counter. Alas, my application was accepted without much questions and to the officer in charge all seemed right. This time my assumption turned out to be right.


Post application issues:
a. It’s been nearly 55days and so far we have not heard a single word from the authorities of the status of the passport.

b. I have requested for the status at the following official email IDS, however till date there has been no response to my email.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

c. My wife has had to visit the passport office a couple of times leaving behind the infant, for more than 3hours standing in queues just to know the status. This has also not resulted in any fruitful outcome and the officer there simply told that the status was not visible on the system at that point of time…however the passport would be delivered within 5days. It’s been beyond a week now. Can you imagine the plight of an woman who has given birth to a child only a couple of months and has to go through this sort of a trauma in a government office.

d. The Tamil Nadu passport office websites shows the following numbers as “Contact Us”:
(Refer Attachment 1)
Believe me Sir, I have been trying and trying to get connected at least one of these numbers, but none seem to function. Also, the Tele-Enquiry number is an invalid number. I’m really surprised how can an important government office have such a mistake when in numerous people rely on such services.

e. When I try to check the status online, to my surprise I see that the section reads ‘Last updated as on 03rd JUNE 2010’. Sir, as mentioned above its really surprising that this basic update is not done in real time. Are all the applicants facing issues forced to visit the Passport office to enquire just the status?
(Refer Attachment 2)


Sir what I have documented above is not just my story, in reality this is the plight of many and many such people who apply for passports. I’m not sure how it functions, but I do understand simple laws of life that it is not a free service, but an expensive one for a common man and certainly the government has many mandatory and vital formalities involved before it can issue an passport to any of the citizen. However, what I fail to understand is that why is the experience of obtaining a passport made traumatic? Why does this system function like a BLACK-BOX? If people working within the office are frustrated answering or assisting the applicants then my assumption is that they must look for alternative careers, because the chair that they occupy is meant to server people and not harass them. The intention of my mail is not just to obtain the passport for my kid & get away (or) either to point fingers at any particular individual; rather my intent is to bring in front of you my personal experience which is nearly the same of many-many more people. And, I appreciate if you take realistic steps and measures to personally look into these issues and have them solved at the grass root level; so that the thousands of people applying daily are saved from such horrific experiences.

Please excuse me if my language has not be rational and if I have hurt any sentiments.
Hoping you would recognize the agony of a common man and help find a way out.

Best Regards,
Vineet.

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NOTE:
The files do not attach due to the size, however I do have a copy of it. So please feel free to email me for the same.