No more harassment for passports: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said Bangladeshi citizens must not be harassed when they go to get their passports done.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 12 August 2014, 03:32 PM
Updated : 24 August 2014, 01:32 PM

She said this at video conference with 33 regional passport offices from Ganabhaban on Tuesday while launching a machine readable passport (MRP) project.

“Everyone must be given passport in accordance with procedure. No one should be harassed,” she told officials while launching an MRP facility at Lakshmipur.

“We must work to serve the people. That should be our goal.”
The programme to introduce MRPs was introduced in 2010.
The facility is currently available in 34 regional passport offices in 31 districts, and in 48 Bangladesh embassies abroad. Until now, about 900,000 such passports have been issued.
The government is now working towards opening regional passport offices in the remaining 33 districts.
Initially, such offices opened in Lakshmipur, Madaripur, Shariatpur, Rajbarhi and Naogaon will serve as pilot projects.
The process of opening passport offices in the other 28 districts has already begun, and digital passports would soon be issued from them.
Sheikh Hasina thanked everyone present and said passport offices would be opened in all regions in phases.
“People will be able to get passports done in their own places.”
Stressing modern passports, she said the travel of expatriates must be made easy.