The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority today summoned Acting Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi and Director General of the Department of Passport Lok Bahadur Thapa and directed them to adopt all measures possible to ensure timely replacement of all handwritten passports before the international deadline of November 24.

CIAA Chief Commissioner Lok Man Singh Karki and other officials inquired Bairagi and Thapa about the possibility of replacing all remaining handwritten passports and provide Machine Readable Passport by the deadline set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, a UN specialised agency that regulates the international air travel.

Both Bairagi and Thapa expressed commitment to ensure timely replacement of all handwritten passports of those Nepalis living at home and abroad on time, according to a statement issued by the CIAA. 

Acting Foreign Secretary Bairagi apprised the CIAA of the measures that have been taken, including awareness and information dissemination campaign by Nepali embassies and missions mainly in the Gulf countries and Malaysia, to get handwritten passports replaced with MRPs.

It is estimated that over two million Nepalis are carrying handwritten passports which need to be replaced within next 11 months. However, DoP Director General Thapa said the government has no official data about how many handwritten passports were issued before MRP was launched in December 2010.

Published on: 8 January 2015 | The Himalayan Times