No more of Ration Cards as a Proof for Passport from April 1

By siliconindia | Wednesday, 30 March 2016, 05:55 Hrs

BENGALURU: The central government has issued a notice for the passport applicants, that they should not produce ration card as a proof of identity and address, as compiled by Nisha Nambiar for The Indian Express. As it is very easy to make the changes in the ration card it’s not possible to verify the authenticity of the candidate. “When they migrate, they alter the details to be able to misuse the card for various purposes,” said officials from the passport office. Due to this every time all passports offices not only have to make the necessary changes to the information on their portals but also they have to run a ticker informing the public that ration card was no longer a valid proof of identity or address.

The Ministry of External Affairs, in a circular issued to all Passport Seva Kendras had informed that the passport applicants could submit water bill, Aadhaar card, income-tax assessment order, proof of gas connection, registered rent agreement, photo passbook of active bank account, electricity bill, and the passport copy of spouse as a identity proof for obtaining passport. Regional passport officer Atul Gotsurve said, “Presently, along with the ration card, we were asking for another address proof that made it almost negligent. However, with the present order from the government, we will make it mandatory and we would be implementing it from April 1,” reports The Indian Express.

The authorities had also detected a pattern of some candidates applying for non-ECR (Emigration Check Required) passports by enclosing income tax returns by remitting inadequate sums like 100, 200 and 300 as income tax and claiming themselves eligible to get non-ECR passports.