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Jul302008
Passport Woes
I don’t get frustrated very often, ok, I do get frustrated time and again, but not to this extent.
The Passport office at Pune has tested my patience beyond my control. And i am angry. Very very angry.
We had applied for my wife’s passport in September of 2007. At that time she had not completed 1 year in Pune. So being the law abiding (almost) citizens that we were, we went ahead and gave proof of her earlier residence in Mumbai for verification. Now the deal is, her folks have left that place and shifted to Nashik. Talk about bad timing.
As of now, we have not received her passport. Enquiries at the local passport office tell us that address verification report has not been received from Mumbai, and that the Pune office cannot do anything about it.
Really?? Then who can? May be a 1000 buck note will give them inspiration to do it.
Today, i went to the passport office to meet the Asst. P.R.O. (all enquiries to the PRO get redirected to his asst.) This man, who was supposed to be in office at 10 am, came at 10:30 am. When we got our turn to see him, both me and my wife, tried to explain to him our predicament. This guy tells me, to get one more person so that all three of us could talk together!! This ‘government servant’ has the audacity to tell me that he won’t do it, and i should approach another P.R.O. if i was in a hurry. Isn’t 11 months already a long time to wait for once passport, especially when the Passport office claims to deliver a fresh passport in 45 working days! Tall claims?? I say very tall claims. The worst part is that there is no official grievance redressal forum.
I sometimes feel that we are paying a penalty for doing things the right way. I should have just lied in the beginning about her length of residence in Pune, and all would have been well. I am so pissed.
This makes me wonder…who is the public servant here? And what has become of the so called public servant. Isn’t he supposed to help people?
I was so angry at that man in the office, that I gave him good. Left right and center. Thankfully, my wife was there to control me, else I would have made him regret that he ever chose this (or was dumped into) line of work.
I finally had to ask them to close my file so that I can re-apply. Hopefully this time it won’t take so long for her passport.
The views expressed in this post are those of the writer and are not necessarily endorsed by Mutiny.in
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Abhinav Khandelwal
001
11:48 pm
Have you heard about Right to Information Act. This comes handy at these places and the only thing that government servants are afraid of is this act. I suggest you use this. contact http://righttoinformation.org for writing a good application which actually works.
Vinita Deshmukh
002
3:01 am
Dear Ketan
I would like to highlight your traumatic experience in Intelligent Pune, the city’s popular weekly tabloid. I am the editor and also pursue matters through Right To Information. In ase, you are okay to talk about the issue, do email me at vinitapune@gmail.com. We have highlighted passport woes earlier too.
rgds, vinita deshmukh
VelaSwami
003
9:18 am
we must be alert my friend. you have done the right thing by requesting a closure; its best to reapply. this time round you might have to pay chai pani to the cop for verification.
i was lucky. the constable who did my verification was a genuine guy - a honest and brave cop. he helped me with all the paperwork and never ever asked for any money. i had my passport reissued within 60 days.
hope you are equally lucky.
Ketan
004
10:30 am
@AK: Yees, i have heard of it, but was not sure of its implementation. I will follow it deeply now.
@ Vinita: Thanks Vinita, will mail you in detail soon.
@Velaswami: Thank you for your good wishes mate! The thing is, we did have the verification in Pune, in fact we had to go to the Police Station for verification. And we did shell out chai pani also… things were clear in Pune, but got stuck in Mumbai.
What irked me the most was the darn Asst. PRO saying that there is nothing that he can do about the file in Mumbai. I am sure, if i pay the Mumbai file handler a cash visit, he will not take too much time in clearing the file.
Arshad
005
12:06 pm
Hi Ketan,
Thanks for sharing your experiences.. I just happened to check this site lately & it looks to very good. I guess you should also drop in a letter at the pune passport office, But unfortunately it will go through the same PRO.
Generally govt offices do have grievance/ drop boxes etc. Best would be to let Vinita know since she is editor of local tabloid.. I think we should never bow down to zealots in government offices & you did the right thing by not bribing anyone.. Ofcourse it will take some more time & a little frustration; but at the end it will pay.. atleast you are helping to cleanse the system which is in a mess.
~Arshad
Papa
006
10:15 am
Hi All,
I believe Vinita would have handled the issue…..
I have one question to all of us who are here in the thread …
Why we are not thinking in big to start kind of moment to stop these activity…
Hope People like Vinita can play the major role ..
Regards,
Papa
Ketan
007
11:42 am
Finally, we received the Passport.
After about a year and a half of running around, re submitting the application, greasing all the outstretched palms, we have received the passport, and now i can talk openly about the corruption that i had to face.
Vinita, we can talk now!