Thiruvananthapuram: The mobile-phone based e-verification system of Passport applications, introduced by the police in six police districts, will be extended to all the districts in the state within a month.
State police chief Loknath Behera has instructed the district police chiefs to extent the system in their respective districts. After it was originally launched in Malappuram and was found to be a success, the system was extended to Thrissur rural, Kannur, Palakkad, Kozhikode rural and Ernakulam rural.
The indigenously developed passport verification application e-VIP will be utilized for the purpose with necessary customisation for each district. The deputy superintendent of police of the district special branch, along with two tech-savvy policemen selected from the district, will be trained for the purpose.
The state police had come up with the mobile application that drastically cuts down the time taken for verification from the existing 21 days to four days. In the new system, instead of despatching the application forms in physical format, the passport applications will be forwarded to district crime records bureau (DCRBs) by using e-VIP web application for crime verification through their district offline database, within a day.
Once cleared at DCRBs, these files are digitally dispatched by district special branch to concerned field verification officers (FVOs) of each police station under which the applicant resides, through the mobile application. The FVO will visit the applicant’s home and verify his original documents submitted during passport verification at Passport Seva Kendra, using a smartphone.
An image of the applicant’s signature is also captured by the FVO which will be integrated to the passport application form during the verification process. After verification, the FVO will return the police verification report (PVR) to district special branch directly with his digital signature.