TNN | Updated: Feb 2, 2017, 09.03 AM IST
To increase citizens' access to passport services, particularly in remote regions, finance minister Arun Jaitley announced that head post offices of each district would be used to render passport services.
"Our citizens in far flung regions of the country find it difficult to obtain passports and redress passport related grievances. We have decided to utilise head post offices as front offices for rendering passport services," he said.
This decision was announced on January 25 by minister of state for external affairs VK Singh and his counterpart in the telecom ministry Manoj Sinha.
Secretary (CPV) D Mulay had then said, "This is for the first time minister of external affairs will be formally giving the powers under Passport Act to the post office. It's a unique feature where one ministry is giving the power to another ministry to act on its behalf, so in a sense postal officers will actually be exercising powers under the Passport Act."
The MEA will train post office officials in passport services.
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