Dubai: More than a year after Telangana state was formed on June 2, 2014 in India, Indian expatriates in the UAE hailing from the new state are complaining of technical glitches they are facing while going for renewal of their passports.
The renewal process is being marred by an apparent oversight that does not change the passports to reflect the new state.
New passports contain the old state of Andhra Pradesh which is incorrect.
Hassan Shareef from Sharjah told Gulf News: “My passport was renewed with the state of Andhra Pradesh showing in my address when it should have been changed to Telangana. On trying to clarify with the BLS (the official visa and passport issuing partner to the Indian Embassy and Consulate in UAE), I was told I would be required to fill in a fresh application for address correction again. Can you imagine paying extra for address correction, not to mention the extra time required to surrender the passport for this change? I don’t think I am going to do that,” he said indignantly.
Another Dubai resident, Ifham Ali, who got back his passport with Andhra Pradesh mentioned as his state instead of Telangana, approached officials and was asked to furnish an affidavit that would declare he belonged to Telangana. “The government added the new state and why should I go through the trouble of paying extra and the trouble of furnishing an affidavit? Why can’t the embassy and consulate officials have an official list of the cities and towns now divided between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and make an informed change of address in our passports?” he asked.
Ali also questioned the system of affidavits which can give anyone the licence to mention an erroneous fact and have the change introduced based on that affidavit. While affidavits do mention that the individual concerned is stating the truth, there is no means of verification.
Umair, 6, had his passport renewed recently. His parents understand that they will not have their state changed until their passports come up for renewal. But they were surprised that their son’s passport after renewal still mentioned his home address with the state as Andhra Pradesh.
An Indian Consulate spokesperson clarified the situation to Gulf News: “The [Indian] Consulate does not require any affidavits from applicants to change the state from Andhra Pradesh to Telangana. A written request with the application is sufficient. BLS also does not require any affidavit to mention State Telangana in passport, a written request is asked as per instructions given to them by First Secretary, Abu Dhabi from April 14, 2015.”
The consulate spokesman added a caveat: “However, it may please be noted that if an applicant does not make a specific request for change of state from Andhra Pradesh to Telangana while filling the application for a new passport, the details from the old passport will automatically be transferred to the new one.”
Therein lies the rub.
Many residents from the state of Telangana do not know about the new rule which has not been publicised.
Shareef questioned this need for a request to change. “How will an Indian citizen know that he requires to give a written request in the absence of any public notice at BLS? We thought the alteration would be done automatically with the formation of the state more than one year ago. One realises the state name has been not changed to Telangana only after the passport is renewed.”
These expatriates feel that if the consulate is pushing the onus of address change on the applicant then it clearly needs to declare this through public notice displayed at the BLS centres mentioning that applicants need to make a specific request for state change.
So far this anomaly has posed no problem but most affected Indian expatriates fear harassment from the immigration authorities at Indian airports for the erroneous address.
They also fear technical glitches related to property disputes or electoral lists that are likely to crop up later.
