RTI to Hyderabad passport office

[mgopik]

How do I apply for information under RTI to Hyderabad passport office. I went personally to the office to figure out, but there was only one "public relations officer" for whom there was a long queue. We were in the queue for 2 hours, but they closed the office and left quoting lunch time.

Is there any way I can apply for information under RTI to hyderabad passport office by post? If so, do I need to send a cheque/draft for some amount? I have applied for passport renewal 4 months back but havent got the passport yet.

[karira]

mgopik,

The following threads will give you all the details:

Non Receipt of Passport

Delay Is Passport Issue


All the best !

[karira]

New members,

Passport status can be known at:

Indian Passport, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India

For list of PIO's in different passport offices in India and the CPO in New Delhi, please visit:

RTI

For those Indians staying abroad, your local Indian Embassy is also covered under the RTI Act 2005. Please contact them for information regarding PIO and Fees, etc.. US residents, please see:

For Indian citizens in the USA....How to use RTI ?

[rajiv50]

You may send an application on the following lines. You may edit it and delete/ add the points as per actual happening.

Application for seeking information under RTI Act
The Public Information Officer,
*****Office, C.G.O. Complex, Hapur Road,
*****Ghaziabad – 201 002
Sub: Application under Right to Information Act 2005
Dear Sir,
Please provide the following information under Right to Information Act 2005.
1. I made an application for *****issue of passport. The relevant details are as under:
Application dated
File Reference Number :
Applicant's Name :
2. Please advise me the daily progress made on this application so far. i.e. when did this application reach which officer, for how long did it stay with that officer and what did he/ she do during that period?
3. According to the rules, a passport should have been issued in 45 days. However, it is more than 120 (one hundred twenty) days now. Please give the names and designations of the officials who were supposed to process this application and why have they not done so?
4. What action would be taken against these officials for not doing their work and for causing harassment to the public? By when would that action be taken?
5. Please give the names and designations of the officials who are supposed to run and maintain web based. Why emails sent are bouncing back? Why they have not maintained them? The emails sent on the addresses grvgzb@nic.in and rpo.ghaziabad@mea.gov.in have bounced back during last two months. By when mailing system on your web site would be functional?
6. Please give the names and designations of the officials who are responsible to collect and update information and to run and maintain web site - http://164.100.17.24/passmain.php?city=gzb and why they have not maintained them? I visited website [http://164.100.17.24/passmain.php?city=gzb] on 1st July’ 06, 10th July’ 06 and 11th July’ 06 to ascertain the status of issue of passport. The status on web site [http://164.100.17.24/passmain.php?city=gzb] says ‘Passport was ready on 09-06-2006.’ I tried to meet Passport Officer on 10th July’ 06, but he was not in office. I was told to meet Mr. Jeevan Lal. I was informed by him that passport is not ready. The web site is totally inaccurate, misleading and wrong status has been updated. What action would be taken against the officials for posting inaccurate and misleading information, wasting public money and causing harassment to the public? By when the action would be taken?

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7. Please give the names and designations of the officials/ staff who are responsible to attend phone calls. Why they have not attended the calls made? I and my staff made more than 15 Phone calls to your office phone no. 2700399 between 2.00 to 4.30 P.M. on 07-July-2006. These calls were not responded. 8 Calls to phone no. 2721876 were made between 2.30 to 4.30 P.M. on 10/11-July-2006 to speak to Mr. Jeevan Lal. The person who took calls refused to identify himself. It was repeatedly told that he is not on seat. After 4.30 P.M. calls were not attended. Several calls made to speak to Passport Officer on phone 2721779 over last one week. The calls were not taken by him. It was told either to call after sometime/ call after 2.30 P.M. Between 2.30 to 4.30 P.M. also he did not took the calls.
8. Please give the numbers of fixed line and mobile telephones along with names and designations of the officials who are using these phones. How much is the amount of bills paid for each phone line during last one year? Please advise for what purpose these phones are provided/ kept?
9. Why there is no response to fax sent on 06-July-2006? Please provide the names and designations of the officials who are supposed to attend faxes and why they have not responded/ and replied?
10. What is the procedure to meet Passport officer, Ghaziabad and other officers? What are the facilities provided to the visitors/ applicants at your office? How much is the budget for this? When I visited your office on 31-May-2006 and 01-June-2006 to meet Passport officer, I was asked to meet the PRO. I found that the poor treatment is mated out to lady visitors. There is no separate line for ladies. There were about 100 people in the line to meet PRO with no adequate arrangement for fans, fresh air, toilet and drinking water. Why token system is not introduced to ease the things? How many seats have been provided for the visitors/ applicants? Please advise number of visitors to Passport officer, Ghaziabad during last one year?
11. Please advise is it necessary for an applicant to be present personally to submit an application under RTI Act personally? On 10-July-2006, I sent Mr. Vipin Chauhan to submit an application under RTI Act. He was asked to meet Ms. Beena Sharma, Superintendent. There were more than 100 people in queue to meet her. Around 11.00 A.M. my staff entered his name in register at serial no. 110. His turn came around 1.00 P.M. Ms. Beena Sharma without looking to the application told him to send the applicant for submitting the application. What action be taken for providing false information and misguiding?
12. What is the procedure followed in your office to accept RTI applications? What are the timings to accept RTI applications? Why cash payment for applications under RTI Act is not accepted? Earlier today, I called you to ascertain the person designated in your office to accept application under RTI Act. The call was taken by Mr. Rawat. I identified myself and asked him to put the call to Passport Officer. I was advised to call later. It was told to submit RTI application with a bank draft for Rs. 10/- payable to Passport Officer, Ghaziabad as cash payment is not acceptable.
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13. What is the procedure followed to mark attendance and time of arrival and departure of the employees/ staff/ officers in your office? What are the mechanism/ procedures to detect late comers? Please provide a list employees/ staff/ officers, who came after 9.30 A.M. during last one year. When are the plans to introduce finger print based attendance recording system in this office to ensure timely attendance? I observe that often officers and staff come late and visitors/ applicants are troubled.
I state that the information sought does not fall within the restrictions contained in Section 8 and 9 of the Act and to the best of my knowledge it pertains to your office. This to certify that I, d/o. /s/o./ w/o. of Shri , am a citizen of India.

As advised, I am depositing Rs. 10/- as application fee through Bank D/D (Manager’s Cheque) no. dated dd-mm-yy(2006).

Yours sincerely,
(*** )
***, Kavi Nagar, Ghaziabad
Place: *** Ghaziabad
Date: dd-July-2006

[mgopik]

Dear all..

After a lot of waiting, I finally decided to apply for the details on non issuance of passport using RTI.

Passport renewal applied on : Feb 2007
Fed up and gave RTI appln on : 27th nov 2007 (waited for more than 9 months)
Received passport on : 6th Dec 2007 (yes, received within 10 days of applying for info under RTI)

Some details on applying for info on RTI:

1. One can submit RTI applications for information on any of the central government agencies in (designated)post offices.
2. In hyderabad, GPO in abids is a designated post office.
3. One has to go to the first floor and submit the application there.
4. The person will ask you to pay 10/- for which you get a receipt.
5. You will be given an acknowledgement by the person accepting the application (they are extremely friendly). They even sent one more acknowledgement by post.
6. Please note that post office is just forwarding the application. But this is very useful when dealing with passport office in hyderabad as you will have to wait in queues for hours before you can potentially get to the PIO there (nobody even talks to you there. I couldnt figure out where the PIO sits. It is just a guess that PRO accepts RTI applns. I wasted one full day trying to see how I can give RTI appln).
7. So, post office is a boon. Just takes 20 mins.

Would like to say thanks to everybody on this forum who gave info and suggestions. I used the template given here for writing my appln.

I had seen many people (including senior citizens) waiting in front of passport office trying to meet some official who can give them info on their passports. Hopefully, they will get to know of RTI, use it and get their passports.

[will share my experience on roads and streetlights using RTI in another post]

ps: I am yet to receive the response from passport office on the reasons for delay.

[karira]

mgopik,

Many thanks for the encouragement and especially for giving the details of how to use the Hyderabad GPO to submit your RTI application and avoid the long queues & big crowds at the RPO, Hyderabad.

Actually, I think by now the folks at the RPO Hyderabad (and some other RPO's too) must be tired of looking at the same RTI application again and again (must have emailed at least 150 formats to different people only in Hyderabad). Probably time to change it once again.

Please follow up on your RTI application till its logical conclusion.

[kushal]

Yes, we are thankful for your posting of experience of the Hyderabad GPO. It will many in coming days and we would use your post for advising others.

Thank you!

[mpai]

Originally Posted by mgopik

ps: I am yet to receive the response from passport office on the reasons for delay.

Please note, you can also send the First Appeal to First AA as well as the Second Appeal / Complain to CIC through the same route. i.e. CAPIO Post Office.

Manoj

[mgopik]

Got a response from passport office on 27/12/2007 for the delay in the passport. This is what they have told us:

"Please refer to your application on the subject cited above. Your application for grant of passport facilites received vide No E/.... on 20/02/2007. The case was referred to passport office, bhopal commissioner of police, hyderabad and bangalore on 21/02/207.
Police filed verification report from Dy. Commissioner of police, cyberabad, hyderabad, received for the period of 8 months on 10/03/2007.
Reminder was issued to passport office bhopal and commissioner of police, Bangalore on 14/03/2007
Final reminder was issued to passport office bhopal and commissioner of police, bangalore on 30/10/2007 giving time period to reply. Since no reply was received from passport office, bhopal and commissioner of police, bangalore, the passport facilities were granted presuming their no objection and the passport no G.... issued and dispatchd on 04/12/2007"

We are filing a first appeal today to ask the exact rules for how long they are supposed to wait in such cases (of no reply from other passport offices/police) and also provide documentary evidence for the same.

Also, we had applied for statistics on the average time taken for issue of passport etc for which they had not replied.

Comments/suggestions welcome.

Thanks again for a great forum, I hope to contribute my bit over time.

[karira]

mgopik,

File for First Appeal for:

1. Supply of all information which is incomplete
2. Supply of information which is not given upto now
3. Ask in your "plea" or "prayer" that the PIO should be warned to reply to ALL RTI applications in full and correctly.

The following decisions of the CIC will be of help to you:
http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/Decision_03122007_66.pdf
(normal citizen not to be harassed for issuing passport)
http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/Decision_03122007_45.pdf
(passport office mixing up issues...giving a passport and replying to RTI application...both have to be done)

[mgopik]

karira..

thanks for the links. I have already sent the appeal (by post) asking them to reply to all the unaswered questions.

Shall update when I get a response (/ when I file a second appeal)

[mgopik]

thanks for the links.
I filed for first appeal few days back. Will keep you posted on the outcome

[rishikesh]

Karira,

None of the links that you have mentioned are working. I get an error meesage saying "Page cannot be found".

-RIshikesh

[ganpat1956]

Originally Posted by rishikesh

Karira,

None of the links that you have mentioned are working. I get an error meesage saying "Page cannot be found".

-RIshikesh

Rishikesh,
I presume that you are refering to the links on CIC decisions provided by Karira. They are working well and I am able to open them. Ensure if there is no pop up blocker in your browser; if so disable it and then open the links.

[karira]

Originally Posted by rishikesh

Karira,

None of the links that you have mentioned are working. I get an error meesage saying "Page cannot be found".

-RIshikesh

I think you are referring to internal links to other forum threads/pages. There seems to be some problem with them. I am also getting the same 404 error.
Just do a search for "passport" and you will get all threads.
External links are working fine.

[kushal]

The links have been updated. We had changed URL policy sometimes back which removed the name of the forum from the URL. I had removed the forum names from the internal links and now they are working fine.

[mgopik]

Our fight is still on. We got a response to our first appeal (after 30 days) that the appeal has been forwarded to New Delhi.

Not sure how much time it will take for them to get back. Shall update this forum when we get the details (on where the passport was stuck, why did they take 9 months, what are the exact rules etc)

[karira]

Originally Posted by mgopik

Our fight is still on. We got a response to our first appeal (after 30 days) that the appeal has been forwarded to New Delhi.

Not sure how much time it will take for them to get back. Shall update this forum when we get the details (on where the passport was stuck, why did they take 9 months, what are the exact rules etc)

mgopik,

Can you please clarify:

Who signed or replied to your appeal ?
(AA himself should have signed it...did AA give any "spoken" order ?)

Did he say why and under what Section is he forwarding the "appeal" to New Delhi ?
(Nowhere in the RTI Act, especially in Section 19, is anything mentioned about an "appeal" being "transferred" to another Public Authority")

[mgopik]

sorry for the late reply.

We got
a. A letter from hyderabad RPO that our first appeal has been forwarded to New delhi office
b. We get a response to our first appeal from New Delhi directing the Hyderabad RPO to respond to all our queries withing 15 days

We have not got response from Hyderabad RPO even after more than a month. It looks like we need to file a second appeal