ePassports to check forgery

HYDERABAD: Forging passports may become near impossible by next year, as the ministry of external affairs (MEA) is making all efforts to issue 'electronic passports' (ePassport) across the country by 2015. 

"The ePassports will have a chip inserted on the back page, containing the applicant's photograph, left and right thumb impressions and the digital signature of the issuing authority. These details will be sent to all the countries whose immigration staff can match the details on the passport chip with the information provided by us and immediately detect cases of forgery or impersonation," Muktesh K Pardeshi, chief passport officer (CPO), explained at a media conference here on Friday. A Special Task Force ( STF) will be constituted soon to study the ePassport project and global tenders will be invited to implement it, Pardeshi said, adding: "We will examine the proposal to increase the fee after launching the project." According to the official, the MEA wants to issue 1 crore passports in 2014-15 as compared to 85 lakh in the previous year. 


"The MEA earned around Rs 1,600 crore through passport services in 2012-13 financial year, of which Andhra Pradesh's share was Rs 103 crore," the CPO said. 

Hyderabad regional passport officer K Srikar Reddy said a new system would soon be launched in the Cyberabad police jurisdiction to reduce the time taken by the police department to carry out verification. Under this, the constable deputed to verify the address and other details of an applicant would be provided with a hand-held instrument through which he can send the data to the SP office, from where it would be quickly relayed to the passport authorities. 

The system is expected to reduce the police verification time from 17 days to less than a week, the RPO said. The West Godavari district police introduced the system two months ago.