Mysuru: The Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) located in Metagalli will get a Granting Officer within three months, said MP Pratap Simha here this morning.

The Mysuru-Kodagu MP visited POPSK this morning following a news item titled ‘Mysuru Passport Office is just a dispatch centre!’ published in Star of Mysore on Sunday last (Apr. 30, 2017).

Pratap Simha found that 4,000 applications were pending in Mysuru and said that he had brought the matter to the notice of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and had also requested the Regional Passport Officer in Bengaluru to give priority to clear the pending applications from Mysuru.

“On an average, Mysuru is receiving around 120-130 applications every day. The Regional Passport Office has appointed four Granting Officers in Bengaluru exclusively to clear the pending applications from Mysuru. And the applications are expected to be cleared within 10 days with 600 applications being cleared each day,” he said.

With respect to the doubts regarding the applications’ status, people in Mysuru can approach the POPSK in Metagalli with their acknowledgement number where the Officer in-charge will provide the details. The document verification will also be easier as the applicants will be given time till 4 pm everyday to submit the corrected documents in case of fault in the documents submitted earlier. “Earlier, the applicants were given a different date for appointment to submit the correct document. But at the POPSK, the people can submit the document within 4 pm on the same day and there is no need for them to travel to Bengaluru for the same,” added Simha.

This apart, the Regional Passport Office has also been requested to prioritise the applications in case of emergency.

It may be recalled, the news on POPSK in Mysuru received huge response from Mysureans in social media. Following this, the MP brought the matter to the notice of External Affairs Minister after which the Regional Passport Office in Bengaluru was asked to look into it.