CPM dharna at passport office

The Communist Party of India (Marx) on Thursday staged a dharna at the Regional Passport Office at Secunderabad protesting against the inordinate delay in issuing passports for students.

 Raising slogans against the officials, they stated that the due to official negligence, the students were losing their valuable academic year and employment prospects abroad.

 They urged the Centre to speed up the process of issuing passports to help students save precious study time and avail employment opportunities abroad.

 The Cpm urged the officials to disband middle-men as they are charging hefty fees for processing passport applications.

The Cpm members submitted a memorandum to Regional passport officer in this regard. He assured the leaders that the department would take steps to speed up the process.

Relating to the delay in police verifications, the officials said the External Affairs Ministry was constantly in touch with the State Governments to sensitise the police department to hasten the despatch of verification reports.