Now book your passport slots online 24/7

Bangalore, Aug 7: Getting an online appointment for your passport may get easy now. The Regional Passport Office on Tuesday announced it will accept online applications round the clock.

Until now, the online-appointment window opened at 6.30pm, and all slots were booked within minutes. And applicants had to wait for the next day to strike an appointment.

The round-the-clock facility will ensure fewer complaints of access problems and prevent applicants from approaching touts, said state regional passport officer (RPO) P S Karthigeyan. It is available at both BangaloreOne and KarnatakaOne centres. The walk-in time for applicants to seek appointment at passport seva kendras (PSKs) remains the same — from 9.30am to 11am.

The RPO said the number of monthly appointment slots has increased from 37,900 to 49,800 since December 2012. He spoke of a plan to increase the number of annual slots by 30,000. With this, Karnataka will be able to issue 4.8 lakh passports a year, up from 4 lakh.

Passports are currently delivered in 51 days, of which 35 days are set aside for police verification. Karthigeyan said: "Thanks to 'Direct to Thana' (a police-PSK project), police verification is cut to 21 days and passports are delivered in 35 days. Police personnel get Rs 100 in incentive if they process it faster."

Karnataka's Passport Seva Kendras have recorded a 32% rise in passport deliveries in the past six months. The average monthly passport despatch has increased from 28,700 to 39,500. July saw 49,800 appointments allotted and 40,000 passports delivered.

The RPO plans to make the waiting time for appointments uniform at all the Kendras. Now, it is 35 days at the Lalbagh facility and 10 days elsewhere. Officials said the Gulbarga Passport Application Centre will be upgraded to a mini-Kendra, and the external affairs ministry was examining other PSK proposals.

More e-features

* Pay online via credit or debit cards (Master and Visa), and internet banking via SBI facility. Applicants can use challan option on the website and deposit the amount in any SBI branch

* Android app mPassport Seva allows users to track passport status, locate PSKs and provides information

* To prevent smudging of photographs and data on passport booklets, the ministry has launched a tamper-proof letter-screen image or ghost-image security feature

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DK-Udupi local authorities' constituency by-poll: 4 candidates – Cong, BJP, SDPI, Ind – in fray

News Network

October 8,2024

Mangaluru: The by-election to the legislative council from the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi local authorities' constituency will be a contest among four candidates. An independent candidate, Muhammed Riyaz, has withdrawn his nomination on Monday, the last day for withdrawal.

Deputy commissioner Mullai Muhilan MP stated that candidates Kishore BR (BJP), Raju Poojary (Congress), Anwar Sadat S (SDPI), and Dinakar Ullal (independent) will be in the fray.

Polling will be held at 392 booths in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts between 8am and 4pm on Oct 21.

A total of 6,032 voters from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi are eligible to vote. While there will be 234 polling booths in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi will have 158 stations. Gram panchayat members, corporators of the Mangaluru City Corporation, members of city municipal councils, town municipal councils, town panchayats, MLAs, MLCs, and Lok Sabha members are eligible to vote.

Election observer of the Election Commission of India (ECI), Pankaj Kumar Pandey, reviewed the poll preparations at the deputy commissioner's office on Monday. He issued directions to officials regarding arrangements to be made during the election and counting of votes.

The deputy commissioner stated that out of 6,032 voters, 3,127 are women and 2,905 are men. He said the counting of votes will be held at St Aloysius PU College in the city on Oct 24.

Udupi deputy commissioner Vidya Kumari K, city police commissioner Anupam Agrawal, Dakshina Kannada ZP CEO Anandh K, Dakshina Kannada SP Yathish N, Udupi SP Arun K, and additional deputy commissioners Santhosh Kumar G and Mamatha Devi were present.

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