POPSK at Belagavi Head Post office awaiting Furniture from MEA

The wait for the Post Office Passport Seva Kendra to be opened in Belagavi is getting more as the days pass by. In may it was scheduled to commence operations by June end, but didn’t hear a word about it.

We filed an RTI with the Ministry of External affairs to know the Truth, and we have the following reply

The ministry of External affairs is in the process of completing the necessary formalities like selection/ preparation of the site, procurement of equipment’s etc for the opening of POPSK at Belagavi.

We further asked for all the minutes of meetings held for the establishment and now it is clear that, the POPSK Belagavi is awaiting Furniture from the Ministry of External affairs (MEA).

The latest correspondence dated 26-07-2017 states –

Space on the first floor was identified and white washing and electrical rewiring has been done. However network cabling was not done as the furniture are yet to be supplied by MEA. It is also ascertained by the RPO Bengaluru that the process of procurement of furniture may take some more time.

So it is clear that POPSK building and space on First floor of the Head post office is ready for the POPSK but the MEA will have to expedite the tender process and establish the POPSK at the earliest.

• The First floor of the Head Post Office Belagavi was finalized on May 12, 2017 when the allotment was done February 10, 2017.

  
  In April the PMG North Karnataka had visited Belagavi and he had ascertained that First floor of Tilakwadi Post office would be suitable as it had a vacant space of 1170 sq. feet and even layout maps were prepared.

• Earlier to that in March, PMG had requested to see if any ground floor can be made available but only two places were suggested First floor of HO and first floor of Tilakwadi.
• In January 2017 there is correspondence between the PMG NK and Chief PMG Karnataka, where in space was requested for establishing a full fledged Passport seva kendra at Belagavi.
• The correspondence there was basically to identify a 1000 sq feet ground floor for its establishment. The correspondence goes back to as late as 14-12-2016 which says ground floor will be suitable for the PSK.

Now the POPSK will open only after the Furniture is supplied by the MEA and also the human resources are arranged for the same. The wait could be as long as a couple of months.