Lucknow, Feb 13 (IANS): Permission for holding protests and demonstrations in Lucknow can now be sought online.

The Lucknow Police have added a section under its permission slot in their website where users can seek permission for protests and demonstrations. Till now, the process was offline and involved a lot of hassles.

Permissions for events such as marathons, shootings, religious programmes and yatras, etc., can also be taken from the same site.

“At present, applicants have to fill an application form with an affidavit and submit the documents in the office of the authority concerned. The application form is then sent to the police station concerned. The police station investigates and gives a recommendation whether to give permission,” said a police spokesman.

Joint commissioner of police (law & order), Upendra Kumar Agrawal, said, “There is often delay in this process and the applicant also faces problems, not being able to know the status of his application. In view of all these problems, an online system for application has been prepared by Lucknow Police.”

According to police, on opening this page, citizen services are displayed and on clicking citizen services, various types of services provided by Lucknow Police can be seen. At present, mainly tenant verification and character verification are being used to the maximum. A heading related to permission has been added under the same heading ‘Citizen Services’. By clicking on this the applicant can complete the procedure and apply.

People can also know the status of their application, by going to the site and submitting their details. “Once it is approved, the online approval letter can also be downloaded and used,” the spokesman said.

“This record will also be available on the Lucknow Police site and a permission letter can be matched by Lucknow Police with the site to find out if it is genuine,” said the JCP (L&O).