When I last renewed my passport, the Hon’ble S M Krishna was not India’s Foreign Minister. The ‘manual’ renewal process took two hours to complete and my passport arrived in the post within a fortnight. End of renewal. Simple. Extra Cost = Rs 100 for the Tout.
Now FM @SMKrishnaCong and his erstwhile MOS @ShashiTharoor – both Honourable Men by any standards, but one is a chronic bungler and the other has FIM disease (foot in mouth). The latter was shown the door but the former persists in running a most inefficient administration at MEA. The “face” of the MEA in India is the Passport Office. And they decided to “modernize” it at a huge cost to the tax payer.
Now don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of new, posh, aircon offices, new swanky buildings, lots of computers and even a tie up with the UID project of Nandan Nilekani more famous for his rags-to-riches story at Infosys. The staff enjoy far greater comfort at any passport office than their predecessors enjoyed since time immemorial.
There ends the good news. The bad news is that now under this new dispensation, the simple act of getting a passport renewed takes over one month to APPLY and I’m yet to find out how long to get it back (if at all).
I went to the website and found that to apply online (introduced after much pomp & fanfare)I should go to the website. The link given was inactive and had to be copied on to the URL field in my browser. Couldn’t they just open the other website on clicking that option? No. Why? Because that’s the underlying theme – how to harass people. No. I’m not biased. Just read on and decide for yourself.
So I opened the Seva* website. The bungling nature of this website becomes apparent in every nook and corner. It’s the best way to harass an applicant without being obvious. After some hours on the website I finally finished answering all the questions on line and uploading the documents (as far as I could gather from a disjointed, confusing and dysfunctional website) I reached the “Take an Appointment” link.
That’s when it really gets to you. Given that I wanted a “Tatkal” renewal, I expected a quick appointment. So I chose a “PSK” – their aircon offices around the country – nearby and started to click on the next date. Promptly, the screen screamed at me: “No Slot Available”. Okay, so what do I do next? After some mind reading, I found a way to click the next date. This went on and when I reached a date OVER ONE MONTH LATER, I finally arrived at a date that had some “open slots”. I just took the first one available.
Then I called the fancy call center IVR system 1800 825 1800 and after several tries using different options each time, I managed to speak to a human being. He was very courteous and told me in no uncertain terms that the only way I’d get an earlier APPLICATION date was to go to a local PSK and ‘get a token’. Telling myself that I should have done this in the first instance, I went to the PSK.
Now is the shocker. At first the guard on duty would not allow us to even enter the PSK. After some more harassment, he sent us to the ENQUIRY counter.
Air-conditioned and posh. The guy at the counter wouldn’t accept the application but told us to come around 1 am – yes, 1 am in the morning – and stand in the queue that forms outside to collect a token. Why so early? Oh, they give out only 100 tokens ever day at around 8.30 am and only those with tokens can enter the PSK and SUBMIT their applications! When asked why these same EVERY DAY tokens were not available on-line, he had no answer. But he did smile!
At the gate, I ventured to ask the guard (who by now had the I-Told-You-So look, what time I should really come to get a token. Without blinking, he said at midnight. Later would make it chancy. The office opened at 9.30 am APPROXIMATELY (read 10.30 am) and so be prepared to spend the better part of the day here. Meaning, pack a picnic breakfast, lunch and mid day meals as well, if you are a diabetic. Leaving the queue would forfeit your place, even to go to the loo, which does not exists except on the roadside.
I’m now between a rock and a hard place, thanks to the Bungling S M Krishna and his FIM, UN “Educated”, ex-MOS Tharoor. This must rank as progress only in Incredible India.
This kind of experience of sleeping on the foot path (that doesn’t exist at my PSK since a flyover is being built) was only known when we had to apply for a US visa. That too changed a long time ago and it’s a lot more dignified and orderly. But I guess the US returned Tharoor and his suave boss SMK have to re-invent the wheel at the expense of commoners or “Aam Admi” the “favoured” section of the Indian National Congress.
The wife is going on a tour of the Holy Lands – Israel, Jordan, Egypt & Palestine and found at the last minute that her passport had expired with a valid Visa to the US. Now, only the Holy Ghost can help her get her passport on time. No “Seva” in Passport Seva Project!
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* Seva in hindi means service
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. – Marcel Proust