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The Indian passport is a symbol of tech prowess. And, sadly, of corruption.
The passport office was once hailed as a case study of IT transforming a
citizen service through transparency. No longer could clerks claim your
application was stuck: now you could see the status online.
Actually, its a case study in how deep rooted corruption is. Throw in IT or
transparency, and the disease wriggles elsewhere in the system.
If youre very lucky and your case is straightforward, your application
goes through and you might get your passport in a few months. But many
applicants have special requests (provided for through various forms, such as
for change of address or of marital status). And even the regular cases
sometimes mysteriously go awry.
The first opportunity is the police verification, usually delayed. In a
case I followed, a two-year old girl (a likely terrorist?) was denied a passport
for seven months for this; finally, after four follow-up visits to the RPO
(passport office) the passport was dispatchedand lost in transit.
In another case, a senior government official has been following up on her
daughters passport for years: its stuck at police verification. If, however,
you pay an agent or passport official, such problems miraculously vanish.
One visit to the passport office to any of the special services or grievance
redressal sections shows up crowds, queues, frustration, applicants who have
traveled to the city five times, to repeatedly follow up. And those who have
seen the light, stepping aside with an official, and coming back, both
satisfied
My experience is with the Delhi RPO (passport office), among the best of
them. Horror stories from elsewhere tell me that its worse out there.
Gurgaons cops are candid about expecting to be paid for a verification visit.
And postmen delivering the passport expect a baksheesh.
The grievance cell of the Ministry of External Affairs tries to help. But
unofficially, after four repeat attempts, the MEA official told us they can do
very little in re the passport office.
IT-enabling a flawed system gives you an IT-enabled flawed system.
One answer is to outsource to professionals. And yes, the passport process is
scheduled to be outsourced to TCS, which will process its over 8 million
applications at Rs 200 a pop. That is something to look forward to: SLAs and
accountability, even with variables like police verification.
Accountability and SLA are not in the government dictionary. The Election
Commission of India, another IT showcase in years gone by, has just lost 2
million voters photos from 1995-2000, due to database failure. No backups.
Could an external, private supplier with an SLA have got away with that?
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