The Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Bengaluru has gone out of its way to to help a mother whose son was involved in a drowning incident in Germany on Monday, August 5.
S Manjula, a native of Mysuru, wanted her passport on an emergency basis and the RPO issued it in a day's time. Mohan Manjunath is a student in Berlin and was involved in a drowning incident in a river there. He was rescued but is in an ICU in a hospital there.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Regional Passport Officer, RPO Bengaluru, K Krishna said, "We received a mail from the German Embassy in Berlin asking us to expedite the passport process for the mother of an Indian student. We accorded it top priority and handed over to the passport to the lady on Tuesday, August 6."
The family from Mysuru rushed to Hubballi initially to get their passport as the waiting time there was less.
"As soon as we were alerted by the Embassy, we contacted the family and urged them to come down to Bengaluru, if possible. The lady reached here this morning and submitted the documents here and we issued the passport for her immediately," the officer said.
Most families passing through a crisis need to be aware that the head office in Koramangala can be approached immediately for any help, he added. The family declined to speak about the incident.
Passport office heading for record
The passport office has issued a record high of 5.18 lakh passports from January to July 2024, according to data released by it.
In the corresponding seven months in 2023, it had 3.87 lakh passports while in 2022 it had issued 3.12 lakh.
Of the passports issued in July, 14 were issued to transgenders, 2,86,260 to males and 2,31,726, the data said. In addition to that, miscellaneous services including different certificates were issued for 18,428 individuals.
Krishna said, "There is a clear interest in travelling abroad as well as studying abroad. These factors have resulted in a surge this year. By the end of the year, we would have touched an all-time record in issue of passports for a single calendar year."
The RPO had issued 8,49,646 passports in 2023 and is set to exceed it this year.
