Telangana: Now, police verification must for child passports according to MEA rule

HYDERABAD: To obtain a passport for your children, police verification is a must now. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has come up with this new rule in the issuing of passports across the nation.
In Telangana, the Regional Passport Office (RPO), Hyderabad has issued MEA’s new rule to all the passport seva kendras (PSKs) and the Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) recently. Earlier, the passport used to be issued to children and minors based on the parents’ credentials like proof of address and mother/father’s details furnished in the passport’s online process.
“This new rule is part of applicant’s security check and to avoid duplication/manipulation in the passports. Soon after the application for police verification is received from the applicant concerned, the police will verify the details by visiting the address mentioned in the application and upload the police clearance certificate (PCC) through online method,” regional passport officer, Hyderabad, E Vishnu Vardhan Reddy told TOI.
The RPO clarified that in some cases, this new rule was exempted. The parents who apply for a passport under the ‘Tatkal’ category for their children, are not required to get police verification. Simultaneously, for the officials and employees working in state & central governments and PSUs, police verification is not required, but they have to submit ‘identity certificate’ as per the MEA’s pro-forma available in the passport official portal, added RPO.
The applicants who obtained passports under ‘inter-country adoption’ category and applicants with diplomatic or official passports will also not require police verification at the time of applying for an ordinary passport, provided they submit the identity certificate, said RPO Vishnu Vardhan Reddy.
Applicants who are applying for passports for their children have to keep all the documents pertaining to their children like birth certificates issued by the government department concerned as proof of age and residential address (mentioned in the online application) as proof of address, to complete police verification easily, appealed RPO.