The menace of touts, a common sight at the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in the City may be a thing of the past if the words of E Ahmed, Minister of State for External Affairs are to be believed.
Releasing the jumbo machine readable passport (MRP) booklet on Saturday, the minister said the MEA has instructed officials at the RPO to initiate stern action against touts harrassing passport seekers.
Mr Ahmed said the ministry of external affairs issued 44 lakh passports last year, of which RPO Bangalore issued 3.1 lakh passports, an increase of 40 percent over 2005. “District Passport Centres (DPC)’will also be increased. At present DPC’s in Karnataka account for less than four percent of applications from the State.  A full fledged regional passport officer (RPO) would be appointed in Mangalore shortly,” he added. He further said a tele-enquiry system akin to a call centre is under consideration to address increasing number of queries from applicants. The RPO Bangalore is also working on the introduction of a Kannada website. “The Govt of Karnataka is setting up more Bangalore-One. Plans to introduce a similar service in Hubli-Dharwad and Mysore are on” he said.