Residents of Jammu and Kashmir whose passports got damaged or were lost during the recent floods will be exempted from paying fees for getting replacement of their passports for next six months.Passport Officer Firdous Iqbal told KNS that his office received gazette notification from External Affairs Ministry approving waiver of Passport fees to the flood affected Passport holders in Jammu & Kashmir.“This waiver would be one time exception for the Passport holders whose Passports got damaged in the recent deluge. The scheme would be valid for next six months from today (Monday),” he said.
Iqbal said the announcement regarding the waiver of fee had been recently made by the MeA but the notification was received by his office just today. “This office received today gazette notification which was pending and accordingly we will process the cases in light of the notification which is waiver of the passport fee,” he said.“This exemption in payment of passport fee shall be applicable only to passport holders of J&K whose passports got damaged or lost in the floods. Duplicate passports shall be issued to all the applicants desired of availing such exemption with the same particulars as in their previous passports and for remaining period of validity,” Iqbal told KNS.
The exemption, according to the notification, shall remain in force for the six months from the date of issuance of the notification. “It is further requested to the passport holders who have lost the passports may get report from concerned police stations,” the Passport Officer added.He also announced that Passport Office Srinagar has been partially restored. “The Office has started functioning partially. However, full processing may take six months,” he said.Iqbal said that fresh passport applicants don’t need to go to Jammu now.After the recent floods inundating most of the vital government offices here, the authorities had shifted the Srinagar Passport office to Jammu for the time being. (KNS)