Make a guess. You are right -- they are the passport brokers.

"Apa, do you want to get a passport?" Kashem (not his real name), a broker asked this correspondent.

"If you want, I can arrange one for you in the shortest possible time. I will tell you what to do or else you will not understand the procedure. You will not have to go through the hassle of police verification and attestation from a first class government official. We have our own people to get the job done," he said trying to sell his service.

Kashem first explained the official rates for a passport -- Tk 6,000 to get it in 15 days, Tk 3,000 to get it in one and a half months and Tk 2,000 to get it in three months.

He then offered three of his "hassle-free" deals -- get a passport in only five days for Tk 11,000, in seven days for Tk 7,500 and in a month for Tk 6,500.

"If you don't have a permanent address in the city, it will be a problem because then police will have to go to two places; firstly to your present address and secondly to your hometown. This will take more time. In this case (not having a permanent address in Dhaka), you can use my address where the police verification will be done in no time," Kashem said standing on the premises of the passport office.

"After the passport is done, I can bring it for you or you can pick it up yourself (from the passport office)," he added.

It seems that nothing goes right and many citizens do not even dare to argue anymore that the public organisations are there to serve the citizens of the country and the citizens are entitled to the service after paying the posted rates without being hassled or without having to pay any extra payments in the form of "bokhshish" (tips) or conveyance.

Mahfuz (not real name), an applicant, standing in a long line to pick up his passport, told this correspondent that he did not apply for his passport through brokers, but paid Tk 500 to the police to get the verification done because he thought he was obligated to pay for the police's conveyance.

"The police went to my house at my hometown and at my rented place in the city. They have a conveyance cost and they did me a favour by going to both places. So it is my obligation to pay them," rationalised Mahfuz.

From another perspective, the brokers are helping the illiterate who are not able to fill out the forms on their own -- for a hefty price of course.

Abdur Rob Hawlader, director general of passport office, said they are doing their best to improve the situation in and outside of the office and have set up a complaint box that they check regularly.

Replying to a question about the presence of brokers on the office premises, he said, "What can I do if outsiders come here and create this situation? I was not present on the spot when you encountered the broker. So I have nothing to say."

"What they (brokers) are doing is unauthorised and illegal. They may have a good connection in the police and the administration, but often they forge signatures of high officials. So getting a passport through a broker may not be a genuine one," Hawlader said about the passport brokers.

When asked about police bribery, a helpless Hawlader said, "We are dependent on the police for the verification task. If they take bribes, then how can we control them?"