Stephan Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network – Kasargod (EP)

Kasargod, Apr 1: The longstanding dream of a passport office here was finally realised with the opening of Passport Seva Kendra at the head post office building on Saturday, April 1.

Kasargod MP P Karunakaran inaugurated the passport office centre. MLA N A Nellikunnu presided over the programme.

Locals in Kasargod urged for a passport office for the last ten years. Though, the office was functional in Kasargod for a while it got discontinued later. Therefore, passport aspirants had to depend on distant centres at Payyanur which is 100 km away and Kozhikode for the last ten years.

The union government, at last, approved the passport service centre two months ago. Though there were initial hurdles such as lack of space and basic facilities, it was accommodated in the head post office here.

"Passport applicants will be given a token on the day of application for an appointment with officials to get their documents reviewed. These tokens can also be obtained online. Applicants have to be present at the centre on the day and time allotted when issuing the token, to produce necessary certificates," said the passport officials.

"At the moment, fifty passport applications are being handled per day. The remaining applications will be carried over to the next day.

The limit of 50 applications per day will be scrapped, starting September, thereby, accommodating more. Sufficient arrangements will be made in this regard,” said the officials.

MLA K Kunhiraman, district panchayat member AGC Basheer, additional magistrate K Ambujakshan, district SP K G Simon, deputy commissioner K Jeevan Babu, municipal council president B Fathima Ibrahim, former minister C H Kunhambu, BJP district president K Srikanth, Congress district president Hakeem Kunnil, M C Khamaruddin, postal department director A Thomas Thilak Raj, Post office superintendent Keshava, K P Madhusoodan and others were present.