New passport verification process in Punjab

Punjab government has started a new police verification system for obtaining passport under which the applicant will be informed through SMS about the receipt of his application from the passport office, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said.
In this "simplified and quick" system, the applicant will be informed through SMS about the receipt of his application from the passport office, followed by a call to fix an appointment for visit by the police for verification.
Badal said this during the sidelines of the inauguration of the new office of the community policing wing at Mohali, near here today and was accompanied by DGP Sumedh Singh and DGP community policing S K Sharma.

"For police verification, special dedicated teams equipped with motorcycles and mobile/tablets are designated at Saanjh Kendras. Simultaneously, the crime records will be checked to verify the criminal antecedents of the applicant. This initiative is being extended to other verifications being undertaken by the police such as service verification, character verification etc," he said.
A window for recording feedback in this regard is provided to the citizens on the Punjab Police website. In addition, police officers have been tasked to make random calls to get feedback not only about the fee charged but also about the experience of the applicant during the process of police verification, Badal said.

"The state has set an example in community policing by re-engineering the decades old police related administration and service system into a quicker, transparent and citizen friendly mechanism.

"Punjab led the nation in improvement in governance by taking new initiatives like setting up of 'Sanjh Kendras' and Unified Service Centres besides instituting a Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion (PBIP)," he said.
'Saanjh Kendras' have provided big respite to common masses as 17,10,681 services were obtained in last one year out of which 30 per cent were only passport verifications, he said, adding, the robustness of this re-engineered process lies in the feedback mechanism.

He also announced to set up 100 more Sanjh Kendras by December this year besides setting up 2,174 unified Service centres in rural and urban areas covering on an average 5,000 population per one such centre.