Now, all the passports will be issued both in Hindi and English and not only in English like before. This announcement of which was made by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj while addressing an event to mark 50 years of the Passport Act, 1967. Sushma Swaraj also announced that there will be a reduction of 10 per cent in the passport fees of those who are under 8 years of age or are over 60 years.
Sushma Swaraj also unveiled a commemorative postage stamp at the event. While making these announcements, Sushma Swaraj said, “Passports should at least be bilingual. All Arab countries have their passport in Arabic, Germany makes it in German and Russia makes it in Russian.
“Why can’t we make it Hindi? Now, we have given an order to Nashik Printing Press that passports should be (printed) in Hindi as well. So you will receive passports in Hindi and English. We have brought improvement in passport rules, services and focused on doorstep delivery”, Sushma Swaraj added.
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External Affairs Minister said that these changes have been brought after she received complaints from people in getting the passport. According to her some of the passport rules are “obsolete and unnecessary”.
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Also, while applying for tatkal passports, now ration cards can be submitted. This rule is surely going to be beneficial for those who are living in the rural areas as they don’t have PAN card.
Minister of Communication Manoj Sinha was also present at the event, alongside Ministers of State in the External Affairs Ministry V K Singh and M J Akbar. Manoj Sinha said that to provide passports easily to more number of citizens, now the Ministry of External Affairs and the Department of Posts (DOP) will be using head post offices in the country as Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) for delivering Passport-related services to the people.
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