Postman to be engaged in issuance of passports

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FE Report
The government is going to engage postman in activities relating to issuance of passport following success of a pilot project run by the Bangladesh Postal Department, officials said.
Bangladesh Postal Department has proposed to the government for involvement of postman in processing passports of thousands of village people seeking jobs every year.
Senior officials of the Ministry of Home, the Bangladesh Postal Department and the Department of Immigration and Passport are due to sit for a meeting February 20 next to discuss the proposal.
Bangladesh Postal Department has proposed to set up 'one stop passport service' throughout the country, saying it will lessen the hassles the job seekers endure during the process at places far away from their homes.
"The postal department also proposed to launch the service in 20 selected post offices in the first phase," one post official told the FE.
It has proposed a sum of Tk 300 as service charge to process a passport and an extra Tk 200 for home delivery, he said.
The government late last year asked the postal department to do the passport processing jobs on an experimental basis following complaints that the overseas job seekers were fleeced and hassled while obtaining passports from the passport department.
The postal department has processed at least 7800 passports in the last two months in seven post offices as part of a government pilot project, with little or no complaint from the aspiring migrants.
The postal department officials said they took only three days to process a passport, which is less by more than a week's time the passport department normally takes for the job.
There has been 'no long queue' or 'hassles from the brokers' as is usually seen in front of the passport department headquarters in the city's Agargaon area.
"Now, an applicant pays only two visits to the one-stop passport service for obtaining passport. And it is hassle free," another postal department official said.