Ayahs top passport-seekers list

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, April 16, 2012: Not new age techies, ayahs and construction workers top the list of those who obtained passports from the five coastal districts of Srikakulam, Vizia-nagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari at the Regional Passport Office (RPO) here.

While ayahs are hired to take care of children of affluent families in Kuwait and other Gulf countries, unskilled labour, mostly construction workers, go to the United Arab Emirates and Middle East countries on work permits.

The two form 60 per cent of the 80,000 passports issued by the RPO last year. Apart from this, 10 per cent are software and Information Technology employees going to countries like the US, Singapore and Malaysia, 10 per cent were tourists to visit countries like Bangkok on leisure trips, 10 per cent students to go to countries like the US, UK and Australia for higher studies, and the remaining 10 per cent aged parents of NRIs who visited their kin in other countries, Vizag passport officer V.D.S.L. Surendra told this correspondent.

The RPO here serves the needs of those living in the five coastal districts in the state.

Mr Surendra said that about 60 per cent of the applicants are from both the Godavari districts and Rajahmundry urban and of the remaining 40 per cent, 15 per cent are from Vizag city and rural areas and 25 per cent from Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts. The passport office issued one lakh passports during 2008, 70,000 during 2009, and 77,000 during 2010. A Passport Seva Kendra (PSK), a Union government’s e-governance initiative, was also opened last year at the Regional Passport Office.