Applying for a new passport continues to be a hassle, says A Ganesh Nadar.
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I applied for a passport online, as mine had expired. I was asked to go to the service centre in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, at 1 pm one Wednesday.
Tirunelveli is located 50 km away from my village.
I was there right on time, but was told to stand in line.
I refused to stand in line as I had taken an appointment to avoid a queue. Finally, they let in everyone standing in line, including me. They took away my match box after a frisking so intensive that even airport security personnel would be proud of it.
He wanted to know if I had come to make enquires or show my documents. He wanted to know which documents I had brought along.
No, he was not an official in the passport office, he was the security guard.
Inside, there was another line to get a token. I faced the same set of questions and was eventually told, "You do not need any documents as you have an old passport."
I was the given a token number and told to proceed to the first floor. Incidentally, the security guard had asked me to switch off my mobile phone, but I hadn't.
A young lady took my photograph twice, asked me to pay Rs 1,000 and then wait in another line.
I had gotten through the 'A' section and now was waiting at the 'B' section. It was 2.10 pm and the entire section was empty as the staff was out for lunch.
What about our lunch?
The security guard downstairs said I could not leave the building till my work was done.
The staff finally arrived half-an-hour later. My mobile phone rang loudly. The peon told me I should go downstairs and speak. There the security guard told me I should stand in a particular corner and speak as the CCTV cameras did not cover that area.
After I was back on the first floor, I objected to the fact that my educational qualification was shown as Class 6. I was told to go back to the 'A' section, where they rectified the error after making me sign two documents.
In the 'A' section, I had signed 6 papers. In section 'B', the official checked if my qualifications had been upgraded. They had been, so he told me to move on to section 'C'.
After another short wait in section 'C', the lady there made me sign another document and bid me adieu. "You will get your passport in a week," she assured me.
I was walking out when I was asked to fill out a form to rate my experiences of visiting the passport office. The official was asking me to do it as if it was part of my passport application process.
Downstairs, the security guard returned my match box with a smirk. "You came back just for a match box?" he wanted to know. I did not bother to reply.
TCS has been appointed to make the process of applying for passports easier for the common man. I wanted to ask TCS: Why the ban on mobile phones? Is a passport application office a high-security area?
The passport office should be customer friendly, not intimidating. TCS was appointed to avoid red-tapism that is the second nature of the Indian bureaucracy, but the IT firm comes with its own set of problems.
Get your act together or leave us to the babus. At least we know how to deal with them.
Share your horror stories with the Indian Bureaucracy on Zara Bol!
