Rozario Fernandes who lives in Canacona has to take the day off to visit the Passport Centre in Panjim. After taking little over two and half hours to get to Panjim, he is asked to come back another day as he did not get the requisite papers and was thus forced to spend another two and half hours in the bus to go back home.
Rozario’s plight is shared by his Canacona neighbours and others from neighbouring constituencies of Quepem etc and so also the rest of South Goa district.
The demand to open a passport centre in South Goa to meet the needs and requirements of the lakhs of residents living this side of the Zuari bridge has been pending for decades now.
“I need to get my passport renewed as I require it for the documents needed to work on the ship and I have limited time here. While the passport office work in Panjim is quick, a lot of time gets spent fixing the date and travelling up and down and then you have to do other work like getting the CID check from Margao and then it is issued. From a pure convenience point, it would have been much easier if this physical work could take place in Margao,” said Steven Tauro from Benaulim.
“I work in the Gulf and we get very little time to spend in Goa and for us every minute is important. To travel to Panjim is nothing but a waste of time and if you look at the population in the district and a large chunk of seafarers and people working in the hospitality industry are from the South and this is as good as an essential commodity for us,” added Pedro Lopes from Quepem.
Appreciation of the organisation at the passport office in Panjim has been a common thread but to get to the passport office for many is not comfortable. Besides, the new online process doesn’t bode well with some, especially senior citizens. “I am a senior citizen and need a passport to visit my children in Dubai. I have to fend for myself and it is difficult to understand the process and a big headache. Once you reach Panjim you have to find out things and then go all the way back to get one document. If it was in the South, filling the form, getting the documents would have been much easier,” said Arlette Dias from Cansaulim.
Last month, a passport mela was held in the South and within a day there were over 200 applications and the figure would have been higher as in this case the applications could have only been done online.
Furthermore, NRI Affairs Minister Avertano Furtado pointed out that there has been a high demand to hold these passport melas and that the one that was held recently could only be done after clearing all the required technical processes. He however praised the efforts of the passport officer for holding such a camp in the South.
Furtado reiterated the need for a passport office in South Goa and said that he had been following up on the matter for the last two years and was hopeful that it would soon become a reality. He listed the problems faced by those who live in the remote corners of South Goa and even Margao as they have to travel to Panjim and added that there are difficulties faced by locals who have to use the internet for applications and thus it is imperative that the passport office opens in South Goa soon.
In the past, the NRI state department and South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar have written to the central government asking for permissions to open up a centre in the South. Incidentally place has already been allocated in the event that such a centre is to be opened at the South Goa district Collectorate building in Fatorda.
