After 3 days I went to Passport office to collect my new passport at around 5:00 PM (Its better if you reach there by 4:00 PM). I went to the same hall where I submitted my passport. There was chaos there, people wandering here and there without any direction.
There were 2 counters open, no one knows which counter is for what. I went to counter and gave my acknowledgement slip. There was a peon like guy who took my slip and showed me next counter. both the counters were crowded with people, no queue at all.
I saw people coming for passport even if they were told to collect the passport by post. such people were harshly treated and counter clerks shouted at them that they cant give the passport as they were sent on post.
In the next counter, the officer was using mike and calling names one after the other and was handing over the passport. You will have to carefully listen for your name and then rush to counter to pick up your passport. I waited for 10 min for my name to be called and got my new passport at last!!
This brings to the end of my passport episode. I have put every minute of this experience into words for two main reasons:
1. To show how rude the system is in passport office and the treatment you can expect there from passport officers.
2. To elaborate the whole process of getting a tatkal passport which I found no where documented (including the passport websites, passport office notice boards, blogs, forums...)
Hope that helps!
How to get a tatkal passport from Hyderabad Contd...
How to get a Tatkal passport from Hyderabad Contd....
She checked my documents file and signed on them and kept the file aside. She asked me to pay the cash in next counter.
I went to next counter which had a lady and she was taking cash while talking to her collegue. I heard her saying "I cant work anymore I will go early and take rest in the afternoon". The accent was like a village lady talking to her illeterate neighbor!.
I asked the lady in the cash counter about my file, she said it will come to her. I just stood aside waiting for the file to move 3 meters! After some time, the lady got up slowly took files with her for which payment was made and dumped them on the floor in a corner.
She then took my file and sat in the counter. She was working as if she is doing a leisure household work. I payed my cash and she gave me the receipt asking me to collect it after 3 days.
At last my application was accepted though the system and people looked tough and rude. After 3 days, I went to passport office at 5:00 pm to collect my new passport.
To be continued....
How to get tatkal passport from Hyderabad Contd...
The lady officer was shouting at people and was checking documents while chatting with her colleagues. I felt I have seen most irresponsible and reckless employee who doesn't even know how to work. I heard her saying that "I'm frustrated checking these documents and dealing with these people".
Finally my turn came, I went and showed my application and certificates. she asked if there is a change in address (as per old passport) also asked for original marriage certificate (I wanted spouse name to be included in new passport). She saw the certificates and thrown them at me.
She then asked for passport copy, I had old passport copy xeroxed all pages except the empty ones. She shouted at me "I want the copies of ALL 36 pages of passport even the empty ones. go and get them xeroxed and comeback soon" (This English translation is lot more decent than what she talked in Telugu).
I ran out of office, and found a xerox center. I got the xerox copies and went again to the same counter. The lady was as usual shouting at the applicants. I gave her all the docs including the passport copy. She set them in order and gave me a file. I understood that she wants me to tie all the docs in the file. I did it and gave it back to her...
To be continued tomorrow...
How to get a tatkal passport in Hyderabad contd...
The following are the documents that I took with me for tatkal passport (re-issue)
1. Old passport
2. SSC certificate
3. BE certificate
4. Bank Statement (for address proof)
5. Marriage Certifacte (To include spouse name in passport)
and for tatkal 3 documents..
6. PAN card
7. Driving License
8. Voters ID card
I also made an affidavit (annexure I) just in case they ask. Its prepared by a notary just opp. passport office and he charged me 120 rupees for that.
I took all these documents, made a copy of them and went to another gate of office. security directed me to a room inside the office where all the people are made to wait. (Room is AC which was not working!) I waited there for 10 min, and a security guard came in and allowed us to enter a hall where there were queue counters.
I went inside the hall, my token had a queue name and number. I went to the counter which had the name. There were chairs put in front of counter and people were sitting there. few counters had mic-and-display and the officer was using it to call the numbers. My counter didnt have that system, and it had an obviously rude lady officer shouting the numbers. I saw that this lady is much rude than the other officers. Infact many of them appeared decent and calm to me except the lady officer in my counter.
I sat in chair patiently and waited for my turn...
(to be continued..)
How to get a tatkal passport from Hyderabad Contd...
On a beautiful day(!), I woke up early and reached passport office by 9:30 AM. There was already a long queue formed for tokens and people were standing outside office. I stood in the queue just outside the office.
(There was a security guard standing at the entrance shouting at the people and treating people like criminals in a jail. His job is only to check the application form and send the people into the office batch by batch. But he feels like he is a jailer and people in queue are the jail inmates. I have experienced this everytime i went to passport office and ofcourse at many govt offices)
It took one hour for me to reach the security guard, he checked me and my application and pushed me inside the office. Again in the office there were 4 queues: 2 for tatkal and 2 for "other" requests. I stood in one of the tatkal queue which was 20 people long. The officer was checking documents and sticking token stickers on the form.
(As usual he was also rude, someone got angry with him with his behaviour, he was talking about some RTI (Right To Information) before the security guard took him outside the office.)
My turn came, I showed the original certificates along with application form. Fortunately, he didn't say anything, pasted the token sticker and gave it back to me.
Next step was to go into other side of office and wait for my turn to submit the forms.
To be continued...
How to get a tatkal passport from Hyderabad...
This is my personal experience with the tatkal passport system at Hyderabad RPO.
Before applying for a tatkal passport I have googled for days about the full information but couldn't find a single site. This post should help people who would like to get a re-issue of passport from Hyderabad office.
I have filled in the passport application form and took copies of my tenth, engineering certificates and account statement for address proof. This is the simplest step in the whole process. Now the actual effort begins...
To be continued in my next post tomorrow...
