Though, I did not take birth in a ‘Well to do’ family and thus received no affluence in inheritance but what I did receive during my upbringing, very few fortunate ‘New lives’ get the opportunity to be nurtured with. Yes, I am talking about the values and ideals of life without which in my opinion, it is humdrum and futile. I have been one of those fortunate beings to receive principles in my patrimony. I was brought up in an ambience where there was no culture of corruption in my family and my father has had always a stern stance against it. This tenet, however has been the reasons of a seamless turbulence in my life and applying for an Indian passport is one out of them, the story of which I am going to share with you all in this article.
Being deeply familiar with the corroded system and its functioning, I have had this strong conviction in mind that getting a passport without grafting the Police officials during physical verification process is not a child’s play. But, I too was determined not to knuckle under their prospective illegal demands. My numerous experience of dealing with the corrupt system, were wise enough to surmise the huge delay in getting a passport issued, if I were to receive it without kickbacking the Police officials. Therefore, I decided to apply for it, long before I genuinely required it.
Though, I basically hail from a small village under Bihta Police station in Patna District of Bihar, but the moment I applied for the Passport, I used to stay in the temple city of Odisha as I have been perusing my Law course from School of Law, KIIT University in Bhubaneswar. I applied online for the Passport in Bhubaneswar itself by paying the requisite fees of Rs.1500/- through transaction reference No.IGO5239900 dated 4th of December 2013, which consequently generated an application reference No. 13-1010817503. I was allotted a slot in ‘Passport Seva Kendra’ Bhubaneswar, dated 23rd of January 2014, upon my request. I reached the Passport office on time, produced all the required documents, went through all the prescribed procedures and then was finally issued an ‘Acknowledgement Letter’ bearing File Number BH1067450906514. This ‘Acknowledgement Letter’ contained an instruction that ‘Application Status- Granted’ but subject to ‘Police verification’. Now, the bottom line of my story comes into the picture. The fact of my double-dwelling, created a legal necessity for double Police verification, one by the concerned Police station of my temporary residential jurisdiction and one by the concerned Police station of my permanent residential jurisdiction. The Passport office, Bhubaneswar, transferred my passport application for Police verification to both the jurisdictions and consequently the story of my real struggle in getting a passport issued starts therewith.
Few days after the Passport office transferred my application to both the Police stations, one evening I received a phone call from Bihta Police station. However, I was in Bhubaneswar that time and my internal examinations were going on. The person who was on the other side of the phone directed me to physically appear in the Police Station by tomorrow’s morning as if I possessed some necromantic power to surreptitiously disappear from Bhubaneswar and appear in Bihta Police Station next moment. I politely conveyed to the informing official that it is not possible for me to reach Bihta from Bhubaneswar on such a short notice and pleaded him to extend the date of my physical presence but he refused to entertain my request claiming tomorrow is the last date for sending the report to the Passport office. He said if you don’t turn up by tomorrow an ‘Absent Report’ shall be sent to the Passport office. I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t understand how a state agency can be so slapdash in its duty which informed me just few hours before the report is to be sent. For the obvious reason, I couldn’t turn up and the Police submitted an ‘Absent Report’ to the passport office, Bhubaneswar.
Let me come to the other side of the story now. The Bhubaneswar Police, did neither come for physical verification at my temporary address nor informed me through any medium to appear in the respective Police station even after the expiry of more than one and half month. This is particularly observable because as per ‘Odisha Right to Public Services Act 2012’ the police verification in passport matters is to be completed within a maximum period of 30 days. Finally, I went to the concerned Police station in Bhubaneswar to trace the status of my application but in a bizarre response the officials told me that no such application had come to them for verification.
Thereafter, I wrote a letter to regional passport officer, Bhubaneswar, dated 18th of March 2014 requesting her to direct Bhubaneswar Police to complete the verification process in accordance with the prescribed rules and regulations and to direct Bihta Police, to initiate a re-verification process. Almost a month passed but I received no response from regional passport officer. As a matter of last resort, I filed an RTI application dated 24th of April 2014, seeking detailed ‘Action taken report’ upon my letter of complaint. This trenchant tool immediately set the stagnant system into the motion and I got a reply from CPIO dated 7th of May 2014 that an ‘Absent Report’ has been received from Patna police but no report has been received from Bhubaneswar police yet. The reply said that a reminder has been issued to Bhubaneswar Police and the passport to me will be issued on receipt of clear police report from DCP Bhubaneswar and SP Special branch Bhubaneswar. It meant that there was no necessity for re-verification by Bihta Police.
However, the problem did not stop there. Few days after I received the RTI response through which Passport officer claimed to issue a reminder to Bhubaneswar Police, I went to the concerned Police station in Bhubaneswar, though I had yet not received any correspondence from them. They said no such reminder has reached them. I returned despondently. Then, I started visiting the Police station intermittently to trace the status of my application but failed to get any clue. At this stage, I decided to file a second RTI and kept visiting Police Station simultaneously. After a month long incessant visit to Police Station, one day I finally got a good news, perhaps due to the effect of my RTI application. One lady in the Police Station who was in charge of dealing with the Passport issues told me that your passport application is with us for last 4 months. When I wished to know that why the same was not processed accordingly, she immediately quipped “There are so many applications being transferred by Passport office on a regular basis and it is not possible for us to deal with each of them in a definite time frame. Your application was there in a bundle of documents, so it took time for me too find it out.” Realizing that any counter comment by me may create a further adverse situation, I politely requested her to complete the process now at least and send it to the Passport office as soon as possible. Upon this request of mine she gave a knee-jerk reaction that “There are so many passport applications already pending before us and if you want your application to be processed expeditiously then you will have to pay Rs.1000/- to me.” When I responded that this is illegal she reacted “Then you wait for your application to be processed through the legal procedure”. She outrightly rejected my any further requests in this regard.”
Then, I decided to complain to the higher Police officials and contacted DCP over phone stating him the full story. He patiently lent me his ears and asked me to visit the Police Station tomorrow where he said my work will be done without bribe. I reached concerned Police station next day where the same lady was sitting in the Passport section. She started staring at me with her eerie eyes, though she reluctantly completed all the prescribed procedures in no time. I returned from the Police station with a sort of feeling as if I had conquered an invincible enemy. My Passport was subsequently issued on 2nd of September 2014, around more than 7 months after I applied for it.
During this entire period of fight with the evil system, what kept me inspired and motivated, were the synergy of principles which I had received in patrimony and an inspiring quote by Swami Vivekananda that, “Those who grumble at the little things that has fallen to their lot to do will grumble at everything. Always grumbling they will lead a miserable life but those who do their duty putting their shoulder to the wheel will see the light and higher and higher duties will fall to their share.”
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