New Delhi [India], June 26 (NT): On the occasion of Passport Seva Diwas on Tuesday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj launched a Passport Seva app for seamless application and issue of passports As ANI reported.
Addressing the officials of a number of Passport Seva Kendras and members of the Ministry of External Affairs, Swaraj in introduced the two new schemes - Passport application from anywhere in India, and filling passport application forms from mobile phones, would make the process for getting passports simpler.
While calling it as a "passport revolution", Swaraj asserted, "I found that two things which were directly connected to the Indian citizens were a passport and visas required for undertaking Haj pilgrimage."
While the Haj pilgrimage went to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the passport remained with the External Affairs Ministry.
She further underscored that the new passport centers now function in separate northeast regions of the country as opposed to a single centre in Guwahati, which provided to the passport seekers of all the neighboring regions up until now.
"In the first two phases, we announced 251 passports registration centres out of which 212 centres are already established. In the third phase, 38 additional centres were announced out of which two centres have been operationalised' she said as quoted by ANI.
Swaraj also told that in total, there are 260 working passport centers. These will be expanded to all Lok Sabha constituencies in the near future.
Earlier, talks held between Women and Child Development Ministry and the Ministry of External Affairs, in which the participating ministers considered steps to be taken for issuance of passport and further helped in making passport issuance form as citizen-friendly.