Monday, December 28, 2009

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Employees want TCS passport project reviewed

The indefinite wait for the start of the Passport Seva Project -- an e-project for faster delivery of passports has got another sting in its tale.

The employees have now done a U-turn and asked for a "review" of the Rs 1,000-crore project outsourced to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

"We are of the opinion that there is a need to review afresh the whole project," said a letter from the All India Passport Employees Association (AIPEA) to Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.

The Passport Seva Project is an e-governance project of the Indian government which is supposed to streamline and bring efficiency in the process of distribution of passports.

The contract for implementing the project, worth Rs 1,000 crore (Rs10 billion or $21.4 million) was given to information technology major Tata Consultancy Services in October 2008, with an implementation timeline from June.

Since then, there have been multiple deadlines -- in October and November. But the project is yet to take off as TCS has been unable to provide fool-proof software.

Incidentally, AIPEA had earlier reached an agreement with the ministry before the contract was signed with TCS in 2008 for starting the project -- after long overdue promotions were given to a large number of employees.

The association consists of 2,400 employees located at regional passport offices around the country. Incidentally, there has been a freeze on the recruitment of new employees, despite the number of passports processed doubling in the last seven years.

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