[Resolved]  Passport Office Mumbai — delay in passport process

Address:

Mumbai City, Maharashtra

This is with respect to my passport Application No. - BOM LO37453, Date of Application - 16th Sept. 2011.

I submitted the above mentioned application at Mumbai Passport Office (Bengal Chemical Bhavan, Prabhadevi, Mumbai) at the date mentioned above & after the due scrutiny of the application & payment of fees, application is accepted & receipt is issued (time taken for this process is 5 hrs.).

On 15th Oct. 2011, I received SMS stating (Ref. passport file no. BOMLO3745311 has objection, meet with all original documents & attested Xerox copies to APO Gr - L between 10.00 - 12.30 hrs).

Accordingly, on 19 Oct. 2011, I went to Mumbai passport office (Bengal Chemical Bhavan, Prabhadevi, Mumbai) at 10.30 AM to meet the APO, where I’ve been informed that I’ve to go to (Manish Commercial Centre, 216-A, Dr. A. B. Road, Worli, Mumbai) for the same.

After 45 mins wait for APO (Mrs. Mane), I’ve been informed by APO that I’ve to take a Slip from another counter to meet her. Accordingly I went to another counter & after waiting there for 1 hr. I received Visiting Slip. Again I went to APO waited for 30 more minutes & met her. She informed me to wait & she’ll call for my application form. On my insistence, she informed me that I’ve been called because my form is incomplete.

After waiting there for 3 more hrs (including lunch time) when asked, the APO told me that she has not received my application form & she doesn’t know when she’ll receive it & if I’m so eager then to go find out the peon & ask him.

It was 3.30 PM by then & due to my professional commitment & time constraints I returned to my work without resolving the passport query.

Concerns:

1.The APO (Mrs. Mane) is extremely arrogant & insensitive towards the public in general, including me. I think she needs to understand the true definition of civil servant, its values & codes.
2.How my application can be incomplete? When I’ve filled it online & it’s checked thoroughly by the passport office employee. (After 5 hrs. wait)
3.If my application was incomplete at that stage, why it was accepted with the fees?
4.Why there is a delay of 1 month (16th September to 15th October) in communicating to me that my form is incomplete?
5.There was no mention of right address in the SMS communication made by Passport office. Isn’t the proper communication important to save the time & trouble caused, to run from one office to another?
6.No one instructed or nowhere it’s displayed in the Passport office, the process of meeting APO. How APO expect us to know their internal process, without any source of information? Who is responsible for valuable time wasted in various unnecessary queues?
7.When I was carrying my passport application receipt, why I need to take another slip & fill in the same details there? Isn’t it duplication of work & wasting of our time?
8.How can it takes more than 3 hrs. to get the application file to APO?

I would like to bring to your notice that it has been more than 30 days & in spite of spending my 2 working days, my passport application is still in the infancy & unresolved stage & I’ve to take one more day off from my work to visit the passport office & go through the same tedious process again. Likewise, many people must be going through the same troubles.

Right & proactive behaviour of passport office staff, streamlined & time bound processes; proper communication & information to public could save the public time & prevent their sufferings.