According to MoFA Deputy Spokesperson Harish Chandra Ghimire, MoFA has already held two rounds of talks with officials at the Home Ministry to facilitate passport distribution. [break] “We are making arrangements to distribute passports through the District Administration Offices concerned,” he said.
It is likely that the proposed arrangement will come into force after MoFA begins issuing Machine Readable Passports (MRPs). MoFA, which inked a deal with France-based Oberther Company recently for printing MRP booklets, expects to start issuing the MRPs by November 21 if everything goes as planned.
Home Ministry officials said MoFA has sought their help to collect applications and revenue for the passports at the DAOs concerned and dispatch the applications to MoFA after verifying the particulars of individual applicants. MoFA has proposed to send the applications received in all 75 districts by post or through electronic mean where available, after scanning them.
MoFA will make arrangements to send the passports issued to the DAOs through the post offices.
Under-Secretary at the Home Ministry Him Nath Dawadi, who took part in the meetings with MoFA, said talks are still underway on the issue. “We are not against the idea if the DAOs are provided additional human and other resources necessary for the work,” he said.
The General Post Office (GPO), however, has expressed reservations over the proposal. According to a participant at the meeting held between the GPO, MoFA and the Home Ministry, the GPO said that it would be too risky to transport the passports as they do not have their own vehicles and there are chances of damage.
Hundreds of people from across the country have been thronging MoFA every day to submit their applications, often waiting in a serpentine queue for hours, after the DAOs stopped issuing passports at district level.
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