Toutdom in control at regional passport office

KOCHI: The tout menace at the regional passport office (RPO) in Panampilly Nagar has become bigger and more diabolic, with many now producing fake court orders for needy' customers.
Most of them wear khaki dresses and pass off as security guards or sport name tags and badges of various associations to hoodwink authorities and fleece applicants. From offering services as simple as writing letters or filling out forms for Rs 50, touts now produce fake court orders for a tidy amount.
"The total fee charged for a passport is Rs 1,500, but if one were to approach a so called agent you could end up paying Rs 5,000 or more. We have seen many applicants being misled, but there is little we can do as they operate from public property' outside," said regional passport officer O R Sunil Babu.
These agents typically target those who have to process applications that require complex official procedures such as those needed by a divorcee or a separated spouse applying for a passport for his/her minor child.
As per official procedure, applicants need to file an affidavit on their marital status with court orders and supporting documents, which have to be verified by the police. All these orders can be bought for a price.
According to RPO officials, other than producing fake court orders, touts make money from filing affidavits even for procedures that require only forms that can be merely downloaded from the official website.
"Applicants who have either pending court cases, are divorced or single parents who require passports for their minor children, etc., are the prime target. These require court orders for clearing and processing passports. This where the so called agents step in," said deputy passport officer Prashant C.
"Generally, for the passport of a minor, both parents are required to sign the application. When this is not possible because of pending divorce or when parents are unwilling to sign, applicants ignorantly turn to such agents," said Sunil Babu.
But fake court orders are the most frightening thing for passport officials. "We accept a court order on face value as it comes from a higher authority. Scrutinizing each and every court order to ensure their authenticity will take a lot of time. It's a big headache," he said.
The more naïve and more desperate the applicant, the higher the cost of the so called services provided by agents. "We have had applicants claiming that they followed the directions of our security guard' and employees' wearing uniforms and name tags. We don't have such security guards or employees working outside the building. That's when we realized that the applicants were being duped," Prashant said.
RPO officials have written to the police commissioner as well as the Ernakulam rural police about the tout menace. According to police, they have not found any touts or come across anything illegal outside the passport office.