BHUBANESWAR: As part of the government’s 5T (transparency, teamwork, technology, timeframe and transformation) initiative, the Odisha police introduced a faster police verification of passport applicants.
Tablets with a customized mobile application—mPolice—have been distributed in 100 police stations in the state in the first phase.
“We are hopeful that the 5T initiative and mobile application would streamline and expedite the verification of the passport applicants at the police stations. By March 25, tablets would be given to 533 police stations across the state,” a senior police officer said.
The state police headquarters said the initiative has digitally connected the police stations directly with the regional passport office here. “The police verification report (PVR) of the passport applicants can be directly accessed by the officers of the police stations. The verification can be done online quickly and submitted without any time lag,” the police officer said.
The police verification for a passport, which earlier took at least a month in the old system, is likely to be completed within a week. The state police headquarters has asked SPs/DCPs to ensure that the PVRs are cleared at the earliest for the convenience of applicants.
In the earlier verification model, the PVRs of the applicants were sent to the SP/DCP offices and those were dispatched to the police stations after downloading them in the physical form. The manual exercise was time-consuming and leading to an inordinate delay in the issuance of passports to the applicants. The regional passport office here had despatched around 1.25 lakh applications for police verification.
“The introduction of the citizen-centric mPolice mobile application scheme will ensure speedy police verification of the passport applications by enabling last-mile connectivity with the police stations. This 5T initiative will considerably reduce the time taken for the passport verification and ensure transparency,” the police officer said.