Govt to replace physical Police verification of Passport applicants with online verification

Physical police verification for passport will not be needed from next year as the Centre is planning to connect the procedure with the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems, CCTNS.

Speaking at an event in New Delhi yesterday, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said, the CCTNS is expected to be linked with the passport service of the External Affairs Ministry allowing online police verification for passports within a year.

He said, Police in some states are already using CCTNS



for passport credentials. He said, they will be given hand-held devices to go to an applicant's address and upload his or her details on to the network which will minimise contact with police and reduce time.

The CCTNS project finally got off the ground yesterday with Home Minister Rajnath Singh launching the Digital Police portal that integrates the country's 15,398 police stations online and allows citizens to report crime and request antecedents verification online.