3 - Ministry of Civil Aviation

allow airports to be het up by agencies other than the AAI has added to the urgency sincesecurity at these privately- owned airports also will continue to be the sovereign responsibilityof the Government.3.3 Issues relating to Immigration and CustomsDespite efforts to facilitate the entry of tourists into the country, the issue of visas in theMissions abroad and the immigration procedures in Indian Airports leaves a lot to be desired.Functioning of immigration .counters is generally inefficient and slow. Often times, passengersare subjected to delay, harassment and rude behaviour in the. name of security. To addressthese issues the following measures are recommended.(1) The Committee in its earlier report emphasised, the need to start issuing only machinereadablepassports and to convert all existing passports into machine readable oneswithin a specified period. •The Committee has been given to understand that while thesystem of issuing machine readable passports has been implemented in Passport Officesin India, it would not -be possible to introduce the same in all the Indian Missionsabroad, who also issue passports to Indian citizens living in other countries and visitingIndians in cases of emergencies. The Committee is of the view that it should not bedifficult to install the facility for issuing machine-readable passports• in all the importantIndian Missions where a large number of passports are issued. Other Missions shouldbe authorised to issue only passports with limited validity period and these passportholders should be required to obtain regular passports from Passport Offices in India. Inany case, all immigration counters should be equipped as an interim measure, withscanners (to process passports) so as to eliminate the time taken in visual scanning andkeying in of information. This is a low cost alternative to replace the present system ofkeying in manually.(2) Officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Intelligence Bureau indicated that effortsare being made to combine police and civilian personnel on immigration counters and toimpart adequate training to them. While it is desirable to have a mix of personnel fromthe Intelligence Bureau, Central Police Organisations, State Police and otherorganisations, it is imperative to give appropriate training to all such personnel toensure a uniform, tourist-friendly approach. It is also suggested that the MHA take upthe task of putting in' place a dedicated cadre of courteous and computer-savvypersonnel for handling immigration at international airports.(3) Doubts have been raised about the exact use to which the immigration forms (that arefilled in by the arriving passengers) are put. While the forms have been revised recentlyto call for only limited information, there is still considerable scope for furthersimplification. It is recommended that a further review be undertaken by the MHA andother user-agencies taking the passenger s' perspectives into account.(4) Currently, arriving and departing passengers have to stand in long queues forimmigration clearance. In most countries, their own nationals returning home are notrequired to fill up any disembarkation card and have only to show their passports at a12