Over Rs.38 lakh was paid to police officers as bribe between 2010 and 2014, according to a report by a reputed Bangalore-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). The report was called the Jana Mahiti Report-2016.
Rs.38 lakh of hard-earned money was paid by foolish Indian citizens in the city of Chennai alone to passport officials who were supposed to do their jobs. And this Rs.38 lakhs is the reported amount. Imagine how many bribes were paid without being on record or accounted for?
Taking a step back and observing this problem from a third-person perspective, it is clear that the officials have kept up to the given standard of most government officials in India – meaning that they only do any work if they are given a bribe. As sad as this is, there are some parties that are taking action against officials who don’t do any work – both within the government and outside – but the greatest power against this problem is you, the common Indian that’s reading this. You can choose to give the official a bribe, or you can choose to report him/her and get your work at the government approved rates. You’ll literally be helping out every other Indian if you make a conscious decision to stop paying bribes.
This report has infuriated many, and the Chennai RPO (Regional Passport Office) has started work on a mobile app that will help passport applicants and the police alike when it comes to the PV (Police Verification) part of the passport application process.
The new app will reportedly make use of the CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System) to perform background checks, and also to track, record, and report any mismatch, etc. during the PV process.
The Passport Offices across the country are taking a hard-line stance against inefficiency and corruption. Most offices are working on implementing digital processes and increasing their reliance on the online portals for passport work and booking appointments with passport officials, etc.
The Passport Offices report that the primary reason that passports weren’t being delivered to applicants on time was due to delays in the police verification process. The police verification processes usually take time because of the fact that physical verification takes time, and police departments only have so many resources that they can allot between civil protection, maintaining order, preventing crime, and verifying passports.