No saffron-coloured passports; last page bearing address to be retained
- IndiaGlitz, [Wednesday,January 31 2018]
In a major decision, the Union Ministry of External Affairs has decided not to issue passport with a saffron-colour wrapper. It also decided to retain the last page bearing the passport holder’s address at the time of issuing the passport.
Passports issued after 2012 have been converted into a huge database which is helpful in verifying the genuineness of these passports when passengers are frisked and their passports are scanned at the Airports. Recently, the Centre announced that passports can no more be used as ‘address-proof’ documents and had added that it was doing away with the last page in the passport giving the person’s address.
The Centre also hinted that it was contemplating changing the colour of the wrapper of the passport from the existing blue colour to saffron/black depending upon the passport holder’s academic qualification. This decision was met with lots of skepticism and criticism from the media as well as people from all walks of life.
Amid stiff opposition, the Centre has made it clear that it had abandoned the decision of changing the colour of the passport’s wrapper as well as doing away with the last page giving the passport holder’s address. An announcement by the Ministry of External Affairs says that the existing arrangements would continue and ‘status quo’ would be maintained till further orders.