Kollam: Police verification for issuing passports will be made mandatory even for children below the age of 15. The police have to verify if the child or the parents were involved in any seditious activities.
The practice of issuing passports for children after confirming their citizenship by verifying the parents' passports was termed as inadequate by the central government.
The police passport verification is carried out through a special application in Kerala. However, the police have not been given any clear instruction on the procedures to be followed with the new directive on children.
Police verification is not needed for tatkal passports. Instead the birth certificate and two official documents have to be submitted. As most children below the age of five are likely to have only the birth certificates, tatkal application cannot be made either.
