KOCHI: In spite of several allegations that the tatkal passports have been misused by the criminals to fly out of the country, the officials at the passport office here believe that with the introduction of the Passport Seva Kendras there will be little or no violation of the mechanism.In general, the applicant submits three document to prove his/her identity - voter ID, driving licence and bank passbook and remit a fee of Rs 2,500 to avail the passport under the tatkal scheme. The passport is delivered through the registered post within 15 working days. Later, the details of the applicant are forwarded for police clearance. In the past, several people with criminal background had used it effectively to fly out of the country. But passport officials claim that this could be a one-off incident.“The tatkal passports are very useful for the people who are travelling to foreign countries on emergency. We cannot say that the tatkal scheme has to be scrapped as it is being misused by criminals. So far only three cases were registered in this regard,” B Sreekumar, an official with the regional passport office here, said.With the introduction of the Passport Seva Kendras, the police would be able to track persons who provide fake identity proofs or help others fly abroad. “The Passport Seva Kendras will be very helpful in curbing the misuse of tatkal passports. The biometric details of the person will be taken and there are machines to detect fake certificates. The biometric details would ensure that the person with the right passport is travelling abroad. Besides, the details can be accessed by the emigration officials across the country. So there will not be many loopholes for people to misuse it,” Sreekumar said.
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