MARGAO: The Passport Seva Kendra commissioned at Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex, Margao even with the basic amenities it provides with respect to the important passport document, has proved to be a big boon to people from South Goa who are saved from the trouble of travelling all the way to Panjim.
The skipping of travelling to Panjim is a big relief to the people at this moment where travel to Panjim from Margao has become very tiring due to the ongoing work on the Mandovi and Zuari bridges that result in not only traffic jams but also dust pollution.
The Passport Seva Kendra presently only accepts documents along with the Application Reference Number that is provided when an online application is made for a new passport. Applicants come with the documents and are attended to at two different counters thereby offering prompt service to those visiting the office.
However, for any other service like renewal of passports or any changes in passports, the applicant has to submit the necessary details to the passport office at Panaji. Despite this there is quite a rush at the passport office with lot of people coming with various enquiries besides the documents for new passport.
The staff at the Passport Seva Kendra have not kept a record of the number of people they attend to on a daily basis and even how many documents they accept on an average per day as they are quite overworked given the fact that there are only four or five people in the chamber to attend to the various people.
The Passport Seva Kendra has one added feature that is newly introduced and that is the prompt dispatch of the application to the police department for the police clearance certificate. The moment the documents are accepted with the application, automatically the police department is informed about it.
The applicant can then directly visit the concerned police station for the police clearance certificate which can be done on the very next day after submitting the application as against the earlier practice of waiting for intimation from the police station.
Once intimated by the police, the applicant had to visit the police station and complete the formalities while now the very next day after submitting the documents, the applicant can visit the police station and complete the formalities thus paving way for issuing of the passport.
In fact the passport office was supposed to be commissioned in Margao in 2016 following then Minister Avertano Furtado’s initiative and when Manohar Parrikar was the Union Defense Minister. However as Shushma Swaraj the Minister for External Affairs fell sick, it was postponed.
Then it was supposed to be inaugurated in May last year but chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s illness affected its official inauguration which was done on February 14, 2019.
