The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a circular to relax the existing police verification requirements in issuing passports to alleviate the suffering of the public. As a result, from now on, the government will issue passports to the applicant based on the National Identification Information (NID).
This information was informed in the circular signed by Kazi Golam Tausif, Additional Secretary of the Security Services Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday.
The circular states that the Government has taken the following decisions to facilitate the Passport Services:
(a) In the case of application for a new passport, applicants must issue passports without police verification based on the information of the online verified national identity card;
(b) In case of new passport application for Bangladeshi citizens and non-retained persons staying abroad, applicants should issue passports without police verification based on information on verified birth registration certificates; and
(c) In case of passport reissuance, if the basic information sought with the existing passport (his name, parents’ name, date of birth, place of birth) is changed, the passport can be issued in the national identity card.’
Earlier on Monday, the Chief Advisor Dr. Muhammad Yunus.
Before that, the Chief Advisor had learned about the decision to issue the police verification provision for passporting the inaugural function of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) conference last Sunday.
‘Passport is a civil rights, a citizen's identity card. Now I have made a law that it does not require police verification to get a passport. They don't need them. They are harassment. The role of this harassment must be reversed.’
