New Delhi, July 9: Describing passport as a tool of empowerment, the government informed Lok Sabha on Wednesday that people are now issued the document within 11 days under normal circumstances.

Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said the time taken to issue passport has been reduced to 11 days under normal circumstances. Passport Seva Divas 2019: MEA Proposed Manufacture of E-Passports on Priority, Says Minister S Jaishankar.

Passports under the 'tatkal' category are issued within a days's time. He also said an application has been launched in 731 police districts for police verification of applicants. He said this will cut down on delays and corruption which was long associated with police verification.

Responding to a question by Manish Tewari (Cong) on why people find it difficult to get passports, the minister said besides 36 passport offices in the country, there are 93 passport seva kendras and 412 post office passport seva kendras. Responding to another supplementary, he said no private entity is involved in running the post office passport seva kendras.