New Delhi, June 2o: Effective from June 21st government has made prior online payments mandatory for booking an appointments to reduce non-availability of appointment and to check ‘no-shows’ of applicants at passport Seva Kendras including in the National Capital Region.
Government was constrained to take this abrupt decision because after reviewing the operations for the past one year, it was observed that a large number of applicants were not turning up at the passport office in spite of taking an appointment online.
“This was not only resulting in lesser utilization of processing capacity of the Passport Seva Kendras but was also causing denial of appointments for other genuine applicants,” an official statement said.
To resolve the issue of non-availability of appointments and to reduce no-shows of applicants, the External Affairs Ministry has launched online payment system for booking appointments, the statement added.
With the launch of online payment-based appointments, applicants will be required to make payment at the time of booking appointment on the government’s website.
“With this, only genuine applicants will book the appointment and number of no-shows will reduce,” the statement said.
Under the new process, payments can be made while booking an appointment on the website www.passportindia.gov.in – either by credit or debit card besides internet banking of State Bank of India.
