Centre okay with ration card as address proof, but not city passport office

Unlikeu00a0the rest of the country, the passport office in the city is not accepting the ration card as proof of address, and hundreds of applicants are going through a harrowing time because of this. The office has also not put up proper boards or given an exhaustive list of the various documents required. This results in applicants being turned back at the counters.


Down with corruption: Members of India Against Corruption (IAC) at
the passport office yesterday. IAC volunteers asked staff from the
passport office to take an oath to keep their workplace corruption-free.
The staff refused to take the oath, saying there was not a single case
of corruption in the office. pic/krunal gosavi

Some who applied for passports in February are yet to receive them. Despite the Centre declaring the ration card as an authentic address proof document for citizens, the passport office in the city does not agree.
Rajesh Vairat, who registered his name for a passport in February, is still waiting for it after seven months.

"I come here everyday with a bunch of documents and almost all the time the officials here reject them after scrutiny. If they find deficiencies in my application, then they should put up a board here in the office informing us about all the documents we should bring with us. This scrutiny is nothing but harassment," Vairat said.
The narrow office with insufficient counters sees long queues. The office has put up a notice-board highlighting the documents required for obtaining a passport, but applicants complain the office staff rejects even these documents, which are mentioned in their own list.

"I accompanied my husband to the office to renew his passport. The behaviour of the staff at one of the counters was very rude. The person was shouting at applicants for minor things," said a woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.