Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (PS)
 
Mangalore, May 6: Ivan D’Souza, KPCC secretary said on Thursday May 5 that the officials at the city's passport service centre need to be more people-friendly and alert to the needs of the passport applicants.

He was speaking at a press conference held at DK District Congress Office here. He applauded the move of the union government to upgrade the Mangalore Passport Service Centre (PSC) among 77 PSCs across the country. D’Souza said shortage of staff at the Mangalore PSC and the lack of zeal among the existing staff has hindered the process of issuance of passports and resulted in delays.
 
As many as 7,000 applications in city's passport centre are awaiting police verfication, he said, and added that its upgradation in the near future would ease the process.

He said that the union government has introduced the tatkal scheme to help those who are in urgent need of a passport, and under this scheme, one need not wait for police verification to get one's passport.
 
Ivan also said that he had appealed to external affairs minister S M Krishna to set up an emergency passport service section in Mangalore PSC to speed up the process.