Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Feb 15: District Congress vice president Ivan D'Souza has thanked the central government, for the decision taken by the union cabinet, to set up the Passport Service Centre that will be equipped to provide all the services of a full-fledged passport office in the city, by April this year.

D'Souza who met Dr T V Nagendra Prasad, director in the Central Passport Office, during the latter’s visit to the city on February 4 to inspect locations for opening the office, informed that it has been decided to locate the office in Rambhavan Complex here. "The central government has decided to open only facility centres hereafter, which will be managed by Tata Consultancy Services. All the facilities a full-fledged passport offices normally provide, including issuing of temporary and emergency passports the same day to the applicants, will be provided at this new office. There will be no need for the people to visit Bangalore for the purpose," Prasad had informed me, said Ivan.

The office will have about 20 employees and will cover seven districts including Dakshina Kannada. At present, the office functioning in Mangalore is receiving around 200 passport applications daily and this is set to witness a two-fold increase shortly, he said.

D'Souza has thanked union minister for labour and employment Oscar Fernandes, chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal M Veerappa Moily, ex-union minister of state in finance ministry B Janardan Poojary, ex-MP Vinay Kumar Sorake etc., on behalf of the people of the district,  for the pressure they brought on the central government to ensure that the district gets a fully operational passport office.