Editorial
Obtaining a passport
A dreadful ordeal for many
As many as two thousand people were seen standing in queues in the sweltering heat inside the premises of the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP) at Agargaon. The scene is typically representative of the unprecedented hassle people are having to face at the passport office these days. Such is the scramble for passport that last Sunday a man in queue, a supervisor of a garments factory, actually collapsed and died on the spot. To attend to 2000 people per day the Dhaka office has 65 officers and staff while the figure for the 15 offices all over the country is 313. That sums up the horrific state of service delivery in a vital area. Department and Passport and Immigration happens to be a very important agency of the government. A very large segment of our passport applicants are job seekers overseas. Their remittances are the mainstay of our foreign exchange earnings. At the same time a passport holder would be in effect an ambassador for the country reflecting on the image of the country by the manner in which the person conducted himself. Therefore effective ways and means must be found to mitigate the suffering of passport seekers and at the same time ensure that each of the passports has been issued after observing the laid down procedures without being bogged down in bureaucratic rigmarole. The proposals put forward by the DG, DIP for opening four additional regional offices, appointment of licensed agents, filling in the vacant posts as per sanctioned strength and expansion of overall manpower base deserve serious consideration of the government. If may be worthwhile to remember that DIP is one of those non- commercial agencies of the government that has continued to significantly contribute to the government exchequer since its inception despite being handicapped in more ways than one. Therefore, the government should have no hesitation in investing adequate resources in all round development of the DIP. We also recommend that the entire system of issuance of passport be computerised to modernise the delivery of services in this area.
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