Brokers harass passport seekers

People seeking passport in Jhenidah immediately fall prey to a group of men and are harassed through the whole process. One cannot enter the passport office ignoring these people, known as brokers, who come forward to helping them.
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Jhenidah on July 28 in a drive arrested eight brokers at the passport office. All the arrested persons were awarded two months of imprisonment on charges of hampering the functioning of official activities.
 Some passport seekers alleged that the brokers, locally known as “Dalals”, have collected additional money from them in the name of processing fee and other costs.
 The illegal activities have been running in connivance with the officers as well as staff of the passport office here, they alleged.
 They said usually an amount of Tk 3,450 is required to get a passport through a normal process and Tk. 5,500 for urgent issuance. And a sum of Tk 50 is generally required to meet other costs such as photocopying papers, they said.
But the brokers with the assistance of a section of staff of the passport office collect double the amount or more for issuance of a passport. The rural innocent people are the worst victims. If they deny or delay in payment of extra money they are harassed in various ways, they said.
 The activities of the regional passport office started in 2014.
A broker requesting anonymity said 20 to 50 applications for passports are submitted to Jhenidah regional passport office a day. He said out of additional Tk 2,000, Tk 1,000 taken for two categories of passports by the officials, Tk500 is spent on  police investigation, Tk 100 on attestation and on filling and Tk 300 on the concerned brokers. Besides, the Anasar and VDP men deployed there for maintaining law and order harass the clients to collect money.
 The clients alleged that no application is accepted for processing when they are not submitted through the brokers.  
Afzaul Alam, assistant director of Jhenidah regional passport office, when contacted denied the allegation about involvement of brokers saying “no broker is allowed in the office and no money is taken from the clients.”  But the official remained mum when his attention was drawn to the recent arrest of five brokers by the rapid action battalion men from his office premises during the office hour.

 

Brokers harass passport seekers

People seeking passport in Jhenidah immediately fall prey to a group of men and are harassed through the whole process. One cannot enter the passport office ignoring these people, known as brokers, who come forward to helping them. Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Jhenidah on July 28 in a drive arrested eight brokers at the passport office. All the arrested persons were awarded two months of imprisonment on charges of hampering the functioning of official activities. Some passport seekers alleged that the brokers, locally known as Dalals, have collected additional money from them in the name of processing fee and other costs. The illegal activities have been running in connivance with the officers as well as staff of the passport office here, they alleged. They said usually an amount of Tk 3,450 is required to get a passport through a normal process and Tk. 5,500 for urgent issuance. And a sum of Tk 50 is generally required to meet other costs such as photocopying papers, they said. But the brokers with the assistance of a section of staff of the passport office collect double the amount or more for issuance of a passport. The rural innocent people are the worst victims. If they deny or delay in payment of extra money they are harassed in various ways, they said. The activities of the regional passport office started in 2014. A broker requesting anonymity said 20 to 50 applications for passports are submitted to Jhenidah regional passport office a day. He said out of additional Tk 2,000, Tk 1,000 taken for two categories of passports by the officials, Tk500 is spent on police investigation, Tk 100 on attestation and on filling and Tk 300 on the concerned brokers. Besides, the Anasar and VDP men deployed there for maintaining law and order harass the clients to collect money. The clients alleged that no application is accepted for processing when they are not submitted through the brokers. Afzaul Alam, assistant director of Jhenidah regional passport office, when contacted denied the allegation about involvement of brokers saying no broker is allowed in the office and no money is taken from the clients. But the official remained mum when his attention was drawn to the recent arrest of five brokers by the rapid action battalion men from his office premises during the office hour.