What is stopping State from opening own Passport cell?
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, June 27 2012:
A document introducing the Passport Office Guwahati says it caters to 96 districts of 6 states of NE Region of India including Manipur.
The Guwahati office was established in 1979 and since then passport offices have been established for other states viz Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.
In Assam even District Passport Cell are being revived.
The same document lists Manipur as being in the process of establishing.
The number of Manipuris going abroad for various reasons is no less than any of the states in the North-East where passport offices are available.
Reportedly more than 2000 Manipuris are living in the USA alone.
Existence of bodies like the EMA (European Manipuri Association) also is an indicator of the burgeoning Manipuris living in foreign countries.
This doesn't include droves of Manipuris going abroad for temporary purposes.
Other than the diaspora, many other Manipuris also go abroad in connection with activities like cultural exchanges, sports, official duties, education and also as tourists.
All these people depend on the Guwahati passport office either for preparing or renewing passports.
Getting a new passport is by no means an easy task and more so when the concern office is located at a distant location like Guwahati.
The trouble magnifies exponentially when passports are required at short notice.
The length of troubles presented by absence of a local passport office coupled with the official red tape in getting a passport on short notice was felt vicariously recently when a friend required a passport for his son urgently.
The friend in question is resourceful and influential and he got the passport in time.
Though he managed to pull strings and eventually managed to get the passport prepared, the amount of trouble he went through is a sure deterrent for a layman even to contemplate getting a passport on an urgent basis.
The list of documents required to be submitted along with the application are lengthy and virtually impossible for a common man to gather on short notice.
Some of these requirements defy logic.
Why do you require a bank account to have a passport? Does it mean that without holding a bank account one can't go to a foreign country, what is the relevance? Many of the requirements are difficult to obtain in a place like Imphal where nothing moves without greasing palms or exerting pressure.
And after going through all the trouble, imagine sending them to Guwahati and ensure the documents reach in time and at the right address.
All through contacts and via various means.
Why can't we have an office of our own? While a more remotely located place like Itanagar has its own passport office, it speaks volumes that Manipuris still depend on faraway Guwahati.
At this time of economic liberation and a global village, the national frontiers are opening up and people going to foreign countries are bound to increase.
High time the government do some serious re-think on establishing a passport office in Imphal.
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