Besides, people seeking passports have been facing untold ordeals as the severely understaffed Directorate of Immigration and Passport (DIP) and 15 passport offices across the country have been failing to cope with the growing demand for passports everyday due to absence of modern technologies.

Introduction of modern technologies will also lead to curbing of corruption in the passport offices, experts said.

"An increase in manpower, opening of more offices, creation of a database and introduction of machine-readable passports are necessary for smooth functioning of the passport offices, and for curbing corruption and other passport related forgeries," ex-director general of DIP M Waheedul Haque told The Daily Star.

He also suggested employing licensed passport agents who will work as a go-between for the department and the clients in exchange for a government fixed fee for each passport.

A Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) study in October last year termed having a passport a citizen's right, and suggested elimination of bureaucratic tangles, modernisation of the department with technologies, an enhanced budget and trained manpower to curb corruption and harassment in the process of issuing passports.

The report also revealed that the police, middlemen and a section of government officials illegally collect Tk 21 crore a year from citizens as a tremendous level of corruption has gripped the process of issuing passports.

According to the organisational charter of duties, a passport writer is supposed to handwrite no more than 50 passports a day, but sometimes a writer now has to write more than 300 passports filling out five pages of each, a hectic task for a single person, leading to an increased number of errors on passports being issued. On an average 4,507 passports were issued everyday in March in the 15 passport offices in the country including the Dhaka office.

A passport writer now works six times more everyday than they are officially supposed to, due to a severe shortage of manpower, leading to a decline in the quality of writing.

The indispensable department of the government and its 15 offices across the country now have 313 officials and employees although the total number of posts in the department is 397. The last time the manpower was adjusted to the need of the department was in 1982 in line with the recommendations of Enam Commission, which the then government had formed as a part of its efforts to improve the manpower situation in all government offices.

In 1982 the number of passports issued, renewed or given attachments to yearly was 1.7 lakh only. The demand for new passports, renewals or attachments increased 19 folds since then, but the number of staff in DIP remains the same as 1982.

The officials in Dhaka office who have updated information for up to March said in that month a total of 1,35,217 passports were issued and 1,50,893 passports were renewed or given attachments to across the country.

Some former and present top DIP officials said due to the absence of a national database of citizens, currently the authenticity of Bangladeshi citizenship necessarily has to be ascertained through police verification.

Reportedly the bulk of the passport related corruption centre around the police verification.

Waheedul Haque said manpower should have been increased by 10 times considering the increase in the demand for passports.

Stressing the need for employing licensed agents, he said if that is done then passport seekers will have to visit the passport offices no more than once as it is mandatory for a passport seeker to be present at the office either at the time of submitting the application or at the time of collecting the passport. A draft proposal for the introduction of licensed passport agents is currently being considered by the government, he added.

According to the proposal, agents selected by the government will be issued licenses upon fulfilling stringent preconditions to prevent abuse of the authority vested in them, the former DG of DIP said.

He said the move will be especially a tremendous help for about 60 to 70 percent of passport seekers who seek the document for going abroad for employment purposes, as many of them are minimally literate, finding it very difficult to fill up forms, deposit fees in banks, and having their photographs attested by first class government officials for getting passports. As a result they quite often are cheated by illegal brokers who usually prowl the passport office premises.

He said massive corruption takes place during renewal of passports because middlemen often hand over passports to their clients with forged seals and signatures of officials concerned. "This is a crime for which the passport holders ultimately have to pay often facing jail terms," he said suggesting that renewal of passports be stopped. If the government feels that the move will bring down revenue earnings, it can charge more for issuing a new passport, he added.

He also suggested opening of some new offices across the country including at least four in Dhaka to lessen the burden on the existing offices and the sufferings of the passport seekers. "If four offices are introduced in four parts of the capital, people will visit the office nearest to them and ultimately that will decrease the burden on the Agargaon office, which is the only one in the capital now," he said.