Issuance of MRPs reduces scope of having fake, more than one passport
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Arafat Ara
Scope of getting fake or more than one passport has been reduced significantly with the issuance of machine readable passports (MRPs) as it blocks applications at the time of checking finger print, officials said. The Agargoan passport office in the city has detected 150 such passports at the time of taking finger prints of the applicants, they said. "We have halted applications of the passport seekers when the system found them applying for the second time," said Machine Readable Passport (MRP) project director (PD) Mohammad Refayet Ullah. Though many of the applicants have filled up the forms for some silly reasons like correcting the spelling or information due to lack of knowledge how to do so, the PD said there were some incidents of cheating. "We have different systems to correct the spelling of name or address in any passport if there is any. But without knowing it, many people applied for the second time paying passport fees which blocked the issuance of the second passports," he told the FE. The project director said though some people have renewed the time of their manual passport for ten years, they will not be able to use it after 2015. "As per decision of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the manual passport will not be acceptable after 2015 across the globe," he said adding that the fake passports will be automatically stopped by that time. "There is a common trend among a group of people of having more than one passport, but after 2015 they will not be able to avail of such opportunity," he said adding that if any foreign country considers manual passport that case will be different. The government has planned to introduce MRP in 34 passport issuing centres while it has already been introduced in 22 such centres across the country. He said they are going to set up three MRP centres in Narsingdi, Munshiganj and Moulvibazar next week. The PD expressed hope that if the Deputy Commissioners' offices cooperate with them, they will be able to introduce MRP in rest of the centres in the country. After the introduction of MRP in the rest of the centres, the manual passport issuing will be completely stopped in the country, said the PD. Since the MRP project was inaugurated on June 1, 2010 under the supervision of Bangladesh Army, the passport offices issued 377,000 MRPs. Now the clients are getting the passport within 7-15 working days, instead of the previous time frame of 15 and 30 days. In emergency cases the MRP is being issued within a day also. The clients can now get application form and submit it through online. Besides, the authority informs the clients about the delivery date of MRP through SMS, e-mail and telephone. The government has earned revenues worth around Tk 1.30 billion (130 crore) from the clients since the launching of the MRP last year, sources said.
Scope of getting fake or more than one passport has been reduced significantly with the issuance of machine readable passports (MRPs) as it blocks applications at the time of checking finger print, officials said. The Agargoan passport office in the city has detected 150 such passports at the time of taking finger prints of the applicants, they said. "We have halted applications of the passport seekers when the system found them applying for the second time," said Machine Readable Passport (MRP) project director (PD) Mohammad Refayet Ullah. Though many of the applicants have filled up the forms for some silly reasons like correcting the spelling or information due to lack of knowledge how to do so, the PD said there were some incidents of cheating. "We have different systems to correct the spelling of name or address in any passport if there is any. But without knowing it, many people applied for the second time paying passport fees which blocked the issuance of the second passports," he told the FE. The project director said though some people have renewed the time of their manual passport for ten years, they will not be able to use it after 2015. "As per decision of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the manual passport will not be acceptable after 2015 across the globe," he said adding that the fake passports will be automatically stopped by that time. "There is a common trend among a group of people of having more than one passport, but after 2015 they will not be able to avail of such opportunity," he said adding that if any foreign country considers manual passport that case will be different. The government has planned to introduce MRP in 34 passport issuing centres while it has already been introduced in 22 such centres across the country. He said they are going to set up three MRP centres in Narsingdi, Munshiganj and Moulvibazar next week. The PD expressed hope that if the Deputy Commissioners' offices cooperate with them, they will be able to introduce MRP in rest of the centres in the country. After the introduction of MRP in the rest of the centres, the manual passport issuing will be completely stopped in the country, said the PD. Since the MRP project was inaugurated on June 1, 2010 under the supervision of Bangladesh Army, the passport offices issued 377,000 MRPs. Now the clients are getting the passport within 7-15 working days, instead of the previous time frame of 15 and 30 days. In emergency cases the MRP is being issued within a day also. The clients can now get application form and submit it through online. Besides, the authority informs the clients about the delivery date of MRP through SMS, e-mail and telephone. The government has earned revenues worth around Tk 1.30 billion (130 crore) from the clients since the launching of the MRP last year, sources said.