A parliamentary panel has flagged the shortage of manpower to meet the government's ambitious plan of having a passport seva kendra within a radius of 50 kms of every head post office. The observation has been made by a Committee on External Affairs. The External Affairs Ministry said it has decided to further expand the network of Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) with plans to open 86 of them in the first phase. Of these, 59 have been operationalised as on December 5, 2017, the ministry said in its response, adding it had also announced opening of another 149 POPSKs in the second phase. The government intends to open POPSKs in such a manner that there is a passport kendra available within a radius of 50 kms of every head post office, the ministry added. "However, the committee is perturbed about the availability of adequate manpower for these POPSKs as there are already a large number of vacant positions of granting officers within Central Passport Organisations (CPO)," the panel observed. It added the ministry has also not furnished any reply on the steps taken with regard to recruitment to tide over the staff shortage to meet such additional deployment needed at the POPSKs.
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