Calcutta police have begun using tablets to expedite the passport verification process.

In this system, an officer visits an applicant's home armed with a tablet. He/she enters the findings into an app installed in the tablet and uploads the report on the spot.

The officer will also have to take a picture of the applicant and upload it to the passport server as proof of visit to the applicant's home.

The tablet's GPS data will be checked to verify if the officer had visited the applicant's home.

The tablet will use an app, mPassport Police, developed by the ministry of external affairs. The use of tablets will have a two-pronged impact on the passport delivery system, a ministry official said.

"The police verification will now take less time and the software will ensure that verifying officers actually meet applicants at their home and not vice versa," said Golok Kumar Simli, principal consultant and head of the Passport Seva Project's technology wing.

An officer said tablets were introduced in Taltala and Jorasanko police stations as a pilot project on March 16.

Officers are using tablets to verify applications from these police station areas, he said.

It is almost certain that the system will be extended to the other police stations.

The ministry launched the mPassport Police app on January 25. Ministry officials have been sending reminders to police forces across all states, urging them to switch over to tablets for verifying passport applications.

Bengal received a reminder on February 3.

Cyberabad police were the first in the country to use tablets for passport verification (March 2015) and bring down the time taken from two weeks to three days.

Calcutta police usually take at least a month to complete the process.

A field officer meets the applicant at his/her home - there are allegations that applicants are often called to police stations or security control offices - fills in a verification form downloaded from the passport department's sever and uploads it back to the server.

Here, too, there are allegations that field officers take at least a week to upload their reports to the system, which are then screened by their superiors.

The new system will ensure that a field officer files his report on the spot.

The officer will also photograph the applicant's identity documents and upload them to the server on the spot.

He will also submit his report on the spot and give reasons for an adverse report, if he has to file one.

Tablets will also ensure reduced paperwork. Officers will no longer need to download the verification form, fill it in and then upload it to the server. The entire work will be digitised and done on a tablet at an applicant's home.

In the old system, a security control office looked after the verifications.

The process has now been decentralised and a sub-inspector in each of the 69 police stations has been earmarked as the verifying officer for passport applications.

Once the officer uploads everything, along with his comments, senior officers at the security control office will verify the authenticity of the documents of an applicant.

"The officers at the security control office can check the Voter ID card details and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation birth certificates from the Internet as these documents are available on the Net," an officer said. "In the past, we had to wait till the verifying officer would return and upload his report. Now, everything is being done online."