Passport office has made youth run from pillar to post since December for the missing alphabet ‘Y’
Ashish Omprakash Dubey, a 26-year-old professional, cannot believe that documents such as a PAN, Driving Licence, voter’s card, ration card, the passbook of a nationalized bank and the latest and highly regarded Aadhaar card, are not enough for the passport office to verify the spelling of his surname as ‘DUBEY’.
His SSC mark-sheet mentioning his name as ‘DUBE’ has become the reason for a lot of harassment by the passport office.
He alleges that even an extra police verification, an affidavit and his having published a ‘change of name’ advertisement in two different newspapers, as demanded by the passport office itself, has not helped him.
Dubey has been pursuing the office since April to find out why all his identity cards and affidavits are not being considered as valid proof of his surname.
In a shocking revelation, Dubey states that he continued to visit the passport office at Worli until last week, which was when the staff there asked the guard to throw him out and not let him meet senior officers.
The anguished Andheri resident says, “It is only my SSC mark-sheet that spells my surname without the letter ‘Y’. However, on the basis of the same document, I have made all the other documents, beginning with my graduation certificate, which clearly mentions me as Ashish Omprakash Sumitra Dubey.
I fail to understand why the office is refusing to issueme a passport.”
After submitting the necessary documents last December, Dubey was called for police verification. Instead, he received a letter from the passport office asking him to see the Deputy Passport Officer with original certificates, and hence started the marathon.
Showing the clippings published in Navshakti and The Free Press Journal on June 26, he complains, “When I met the authorities there, they refused to entertain me and even asked the guard to not let me meet them. I fail to understand why I am being harassed and not told about the problem with my documents?”
Yesterday too, Dubey was kept out of the passport office until this newspaper spoke to an officerwho then intervened in thematter.
Passport office reacts Surprised by the allegation of harassment, Regional Passport Officer Vinoy K.Choubey said, “There are some documents which are
lacking in his case, but I fail to understandwhy the same was not conveyed to the applicant in a clearmanner.”
He added that the office sees a sea of people everyday, which makes it difficult for the staff to handle applicants. On checking Dubey’s file, the officer shared that there was only one formality remaining, which should have been communicated to Ashish the last time he showed up.
Choubey intervened in the case and has instructed that the application be processed quickly.