Lengthy road

New Delhi, March 30: The foreign ministry’s plans to fast-track the issue of passports by outsourcing operations to a private vendor have been red-flagged by security agencies.

The Intelligence Bureau has said the Passport Seva project runs the risk of compromising individual and national security and the proposal to put off police verification till after the issue of the document is not feasible.

The government had announced the project last year to end long queues and introduce biometric features to enhance security. Its target was to issue a passport in three days, and under the Tatkal scheme, in a day.

The intention had been to do away with middlemen to reduce corruption and, by extension, harassment of the common people.

“The PMO had been receiving maximum complaints against the passport department and the delays in issuing the document. It is the PMO which asked us to make issue of passports more people-friendly,” a government official said.

However, the home ministry, which received the adverse report from the IB, has said procedures cannot be made people-friendly at the cost of the country’s security.

“With a private vendor developing high-security passport software, it raises fears of an individual’s personal details getting leaked and being misused by a terrorist outfit,” a home ministry official said.

“The foreign ministry has not made the private vendor answerable for ensuring secrecy of the data, which is considered sacrosanct. The whole project seems untenable.”

If a terrorist outfit gets access to the data, it could use the information to give an operative a legitimate identity. The proposed security features are not adequate to prevent data duplication.

“In our country, a passport is not just a travel document, it also serves the purpose of a national identity card,” the official said.

“While we should look for ways to streamline the passport issuance system, the security of the process should not be compromised.”

Security agencies said the involvement of private players would only make matters worse.

Under the project, private parties would have handled initial scrutiny of application forms, acceptance of fee, scanning of documents and clicking photos. Government staff would have been responsible for printing and despatch, verification of documents and deciding on granting a passport.

According to the home ministry, the process was just not good enough. “The key to the secret database of passport holders will have to be shared with the private vendor,” the official said.

“Objections have been raised by the IT ministry whose affiliated body, the National Informatics Centre, manages the passport issuance system and the passport information service system on the Net.”

The home ministry has objected to private software developers — this could include foreign companies — having access to the database and the key to the new Indian passport system. “The possibilities of a breach of security are immense,” the official added.

Former IB director A.K. Doval agreed that “liberalising” the process would threaten national security.

“You cannot do away with all kinds of verification prior to issue of passports. At least a basic record check on the person has to be done.”

He said security agencies must scan lists available with police departments of proclaimed offenders, known and suspected criminals, underworld people, Pakistanis gone missing and other undesirable elements.

“Security agencies have to run a basic check to ensure that the name of the person does not figure in the computerised central registry. Normal procedures cannot be done away with.”

He said he could not figure out why a private company should be involved at all. If it was “absolutely necessary”, the government should have a majority stake in the company and employees should undergo a verification process.

“If any private party is allowed to enter the sensitive process of issuing passports, Dawood Ibrahim will be the first person to float a ‘benaami’ company and make a bid,” he said.

“New genuine passports can go missing from the government press where they are printed, and are available at anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 lakh. With a private vendor, they could be available for as little as Rs 20,000.”

Last year, the cabinet had okayed the project that entailed “outsourcing of front-end activities, not involving the sovereign functions of the government”. The foreign ministry had been in the process of inviting private players.

The home ministry has suggested that with a secure system in place, the easiest option would have been to upgrade the software rather than begin from scratch. More passport application centres could have been opened to speed up the process.

At present, there are 33 regional passport offices and 15 collection centres manned by police and district administrations.