A septuagenarian couple belonging to Nellore city here drew a positive response from Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj after they sought her help in getting passports for their disabled daughters.
Ramasubba Rao Rallapalli, a 75-year-old retired tehsildar, and his wife Subbalakshmi, 70, lodged an emotional petition on ‘change.org’ to reach out to the Minister. Ms. Swaraj responded on twitter promising to help out with the passports. She said: “I have gone through your petition. We will definitely help you. Please give me your address and phone numbers.”
Soon after the Minister’s tweet, the couple received calls from the passport offices in Delhi, Hyderabad and Tirupati saying the passports would be processed and sent to them in a day or two. The special branch police in Nellore had already visited their home and collected details of their daughters for the verification process.
Elated over the response, Mr. Ramasubba Rao told The Hindu that they were grateful to the Minister for her gesture in rushing immediate help to them. He also thanked the ‘change.org’ and all the 45,000 members who supported his petition posted on the website.In his petition, he wanted the officials to send passports directly to his daughters – R. Gayathri Devi and R. Sarvani – who were 72 per cent and 90 per cent disabled on account of polio.
The aged couple said in their plea that they had been taking care of their daughters’ needs for the last 40 years but were afraid they would not be able to continue the same because of their age. Hence, they requested exemption from existing guidelines and approval of passports without prior verification.
Mr. Ramasubba Rao said one passport officer from Tirupati office had contacted him over phone saying the passports would soon arrive by flight and he would deliver them at their Nellore residence soon.
