Jalandhar, April 9
In a bid to attain international standards in the passport-issuance system of the country and to streamline, the Ministry of External Affairs is conducting a comprehensive study of the existing system in association with the Hyderabad National Institute of Smart Government.

The Regional Passport Office (RPO)at Jalandhar has already been making a number of efforts to clear the huge backlog in the process of issuance of passport and has been reviewing the system every off 
and on.

Several ‘Passport Adalats’ have been held by Regional Passport Officer Amarjit Singh. As compared to 2005, the office has witnessed an increase of 49 per cent in issuance of passports in 2006.

A total number of 44,41,768 passports were issued by all RPOs of the country in 2006 against 35,70,730 passports issued in 2005.

A rapid increase of passport applications has been witnessed in the last couple of years.

The ministry has taken a number of steps to cope up with the increased workload.

The first being study of the existing passport system which is jointly being carried out by the ministry and Hyderabad-based institute. The findings of the study would be implemented over the next year to attain the international standards,” 
said Amarjit.

“Now, people can also submit their application through Speed Post facility,” he added.

To clear the pendency at a fast pace, a regular review of pending files is also carried out by the RPO, 
Jalandhar.

“Fresh Passports are issued immediately upon receipt of clear police verification report and all public enquiries are attended and replied to the same day.

“Similarly, issuance of passports in the lost category also takes less than 20 days,” informed Amarjit Singh.

Jalandhar, April 9
Johal Market Association general secretary Arwinder Singh accused the DSP II of falsely implicating him and two others in a case of drinking liquor at a public place.

Arwinder Singh alleged that the police had not got them medically examined despite repeated requests.

The general secretary said he got a call from a representative of a factory for payment as soon as he had shut his shop in Johal Market on Friday evening.

Arwinder Singh said he told the representative of the factory from which they used to purchase various items to come to his shop at the earliest to get the money.

The general secretary said he was waiting for him outside his shop and as soon as factory representatives Tarlochan Singh and Rinku came in their car, he handed them the money and asked them to have some snacks from a newly shop.

Arwinder Singh said they were having cheese chilli in the car only with glasses of water in their hands.

A bottle of whisky was also lying under the seat of the car but none of them was drinking, he claimed.

Meanwhile, DSP-II Rajeshwar Sandhu, along with Model Town SHO and other police personnel came there and booked them on the charge of drinking at a public place.

Arwinder Singh said they had repeatedly requested for their medical examination but they were not examined.

When contacted, Sandhu said they had been arrested for illegal drinking at a common place in the presence of several persons.

Glasses filled with liquor were recovered from them and there was no need of their medical examination in such a case, he added.

Meanwhile, the shopkeepers of Johal Market closed their shops between 2 pm and 4 pm to protest against the “false” case.

The shopkeepers demanded an independent inquiry into the case and sought action against the DSP for registering a “false” case.

Jalandhar, April 9
Blaming Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for cancelling the change of land use approvals for mega housing projects in the state, SAD-1920 president Ravi Inder Singh today called the move as “ill-motivated to scare away the potential investors”.

Ravi Inder Singh said that Badal in a very cunning way had first legalised the constructions and then cancelled permission to the legal projects sending out signals to the investors to either dole out large sums of money to the powers that are or suffer huge losses and face 
bankruptcy.

In a direct attack on the Chief Minister, he said: “Badal has the unique distinction of being the only Chief Minister in the country who sold huge chunks of government property at throwaway prices to his cohorts.”

Calling his fight against the Chief Minister as a panthic one, Ravi Inder Singh also passed scathing remarks against him for sharing good relations with Bhaniarawala, Ashutosh and Namdhari priests by paying obeisance at Bhaini Sahib.

He said the accused threatened him of elimination if he went on issuing such orders.