Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Experience in Passport Seva Kendra

Recently Deccan Herald had come up with a negative article on the Passport Seva Project which blamed all ills on the Vendor, TCS without giving a chance to TCS to provide its side of the story. Hence thought of providing details of my personal experience of the Passport Seva Project in Bangalore

My wife yesterday went to get her Passport re-issued in the Bangalore Passport Seva Kendra. The overall experience was good and was a far cry from the harassment we faced when getting the original passport issued in Chennai, 10 years back.  
She had made an online appointment and reached the Passport Seva Kendra 30 mts prior to her scheduled appointment time, the staff in the PSK were well behaved and allowed her in early. She completed all her formalities in time and only delay that happened was at the stage of the meeting with the Government Officer in the PSK. While the queue is regulated at the entry stage of the PSK once you are in the PSK, at the other subsequent counters it seemed from her experience that there was not any organised queuing. I am giving second hand feedback as I was not present.
Overall the staff was friendly and helpful and it was a pleasant experience getting her passport done

Delay in Payment of Social Security Pensions by Government of Karnataka

Publication: The Times Of India Bangalore; Date: Jun 19, 2010; Section: Times City; Page: 5 

TREASURY OF ILLS? TROUBLE IN PENSIONERS’ PARADISE Treasury Dept Stinks Pensions Pending For 6 Months Officials Blame Erratic Power Supply Nirmala M Nagaraj | TNN 

Bangalore: The Global Investors’ Meet may have raked in a grand Rs 3 lakh crore (if only on paper) from investors across the globe, but the state of the state treasury department, the repository of wealth and centre of all monetary transactions, is simply poor. 

    A visit to the Bangalore District Urban treasury office at MySugar building on JC Road reveals its true status — old, broken furniture dumped in a corner, torn window curtains, papers and files scattered amid dust and to top it, an unbearable toilet stench. Sadly, state treasury officers work amid these pathetic conditions. With this working environment, it comes as no surprise that it has affected the overall functioning of the government machinery. If local economic requirements are not being met, what will happen to global ones? 

AGED WAIT FOR PENSION 
Something as fundamental as pension has been delayed for more than six months by the inefficient treasury department. Widow pension, old age pension and pension allocated to the physically handicapped are waiting to be disbursed for more than six months now. Officials blame it on the shortage of power supply. “Without power, we can’t operate computers and this has affected data entry and regular disbursal of pension, as well as adding new pension beneficiaries. Because of this, widows’ pension has been delayed but we will pay them arrears from the date of notification of sanctioning pension,” said Lakshmi, a treasury officer.