Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan.

People are now issued passport document within 11 days under normal circumstances, said Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan in the Lok Sabha today.

The minister was responding to supplementaries during Question Hour.

Passports under the "tatkal" category are issued within a days' 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 Congress leader Manish Tewari 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.