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Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Pabitra Margherita, on Tuesday attended the 13th Passport Seva Divas and extended his greetings to all passport authorities in India and abroad.
In a social media post on X, Pabitra wrote, "Delighted to be at the 13th Passport Seva Divas, extended my heartiest compliments to all passport authorities in India and abroad. Commended their efforts in furthering our mission of a citizen-centric policy. Reaffirmed MEA's commitment to make passport services more timely, accessible, transparent, and citizen-friendly, in line with vision of Hon'ble PM Shri @narendramodi ji and guidance of Hon'ble EAM @DrSJaishankar @MEAIndia." https://x.com/pmargheritabjp/status/1937450426820858341 Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) celebrated Passport Seva Divas today to mark the enactment of the Passports Act on 24 June 1967. A three-day Regional Passport Officers (RPO) Conference is being organized from 23-25 June 2025 coinciding with this event. In his message on the Passport Seva Divas, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar, felicitated the Ministry for implementing PSP Version 2.0 along with the e-Passport project. EAM also mentioned that the journey of passport service from 91 lakh passports in the year 2014 to 1.46 crore passports in the year 2024 has been marked by innovations including the m-Police app, Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK), GPSP etc. which has made passport delivery relatively quicker and hassle free even in the remotest parts of the country. MoS MEA Pabitra Margherita presided over the Passport Seva Divas celebration. In his address, he stated that the most striking feature of the passport delivery service today is its inclusive nature and affordability. He also appreciated the innovative efforts of the Passport Offices such as Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) outlets in the passport office which promotes tribal welfare, solar plants and rainwater harvesting plants. The Union MoS appreciated the efforts of the Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Posts and other stakeholders for making the passport services more transparent and efficient. He expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for their inspiration and guidance towards reforms for delivery of the passport services in the country. On this occasion, MoS also presented awards to officers, officials and organizations for their contribution in increasing the outreach as well as efficiency of passport delivery services. The RPO Conference saw the participation of the Passport Officers from 37 Passport Offices across India and officers of the Central Passport Organization led by Joint Secretary (PSP) & Chief Passport Officer KJ Srinivasa. Fruitful deliberations were held on several issues including Passport Seva Project Version 2.0, roll out of e-Passports, human resource development, capacity building, public grievance handling mechanism, security related issues, etc. with an aim of imparting faster, secure and hassle free passport services to citizens. (ANI)
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