Former Ghaziabad & Noida police boss is new regional passport officer

GHAZIABAD: Former Ghaziabad SSP Dharmendra Singh has been appointed Regional Passport Officer (RPO) of Ghaziabad by the Union ministry of external affairs.

Singh, a 2006-batch IPS officer, will head passport-related services in 13 districts of western UP, including Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad.

Singh has earlier served as the police chief of Noida for a brief period before he was transferred to Moradabad to head the Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Police Academy.

In the appointment letter issued by the external affairs ministry on Tuesday, Singh has been given a period of one month to join in his new post in Ghaziabad.

Speaking to TOI, Singh confirmed he will be joining in the passport office in Ghaziabad later this week after being relieved of his duties from the police training school in Moradabad.

"In my stint as the police chief of Ghaziabad and Noida, I have learnt that passport officials and local police need to work in close coordination in order to avoid inconvenience to applicants. I will try to ensure that all departments work in tandem in order to ease the passport registration process," Singh said.

"Complaints will be looked into and disposed of in a time-bound manner. The passport office will be made friendly for members of the general public," he added.

Singh is expected to bring in his experience garnered as a top cop of western UP into the passport department.

During his stint as Ghaziabad police chief, Singh had earned wide acclaim for successfully launching and executing 'Operation Smile', a programme aimed at uniting missing children with their families. This programme had subsequently been emulated by police departments of all states in the country upon directions of the Union home ministry.