Lucknow:
If you want to apply for a new passport , or get it renewed , you will have to
pay the required fee at the time of online appointment itself.
To discourage non-serious applicants at Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs), the Lucknow passport office has started charging passport fee in advance. The PSKs at Varanasi, Kanpur and Gorakhpur have also introduced this system-.After the passport application process went fully online two years ago, the applicants have been depositing fee in cash at the PSK counters.
Now,
with the launch of online payment based appointments, applicants will be
required to make payment at the time of booking appointment on the external
affairs ministry website.
The
online payment of fee, besides checking non-serious frivolous applicants, will
also make it easier for genuine applicants to procure online appointments.
Under
the new process, payments can be made while booking an appointment on the
website — www.passportindia.gov.in — by
credit/debit cards (both Master and Visa) or internet banking of the State Bank
of India.
“Those
who do not have credit/debit cards can use the Challan system,” said passport
officer, Lucknow, RN Rai. Applicants can use the Challan option provided on the
website and deposit the money in the SBI branch after generating Challan
online. In such cases, upon the confirmation of payment receipt by SBI in
online system, applicants can take appointment.
Further,
instead of applicants choosing the date and time slot of appointment, system
will automatically give earliest available appointment. More than 30%
applicants don’t turn up at PSKs after procuring online appointments nor they
cancel the appointments in case they fail to visit the facilitation centre.
This causes huge public inconvenience as people who need a passport urgently
fail to get an appointment. The difficulty in getting online appointments has
also raised questions on the efficiency of the online submission of passports.
In fact, to clear the pendency, external affairs ministry had organsied
passport adalats at several passport offices, including Lucknow, last year.
“There
are several categories of applicants for whom the ministry has allowed walk-ins
but there is not much awareness about it,” said an official. After the
introduction of online submission of passport applications last year, the
ministry had scrapped manual submission of applications.
ADVANCE
BOOKING Now, pay online for passport….
Payments
can be made while booking an appointment on the website by credit/debit card
Applicants can also pay through internet banking of the State Bank of India But…
Those not having credit/ debit cards can use the bank challan option provided on the website
Take the challan to deposite money at SBI branch. Appointment will be given once bank confirms payment
Applicants can also pay through internet banking of the State Bank of India But…
Those not having credit/ debit cards can use the bank challan option provided on the website
Take the challan to deposite money at SBI branch. Appointment will be given once bank confirms payment
