NEW YORK, NY: Long lines, massive waits, endless frustrations and an eventual need for a repeat of the same are the common factors which bind the people who seek to either get visas or renew their passports in the Consulate General of India in New York.
The Consulate has been under fire from community leaders and others for the “total lack of consideration” shown by the authorities and the “callousness and disregard” shown by the counselor authorities to the visitors.
The visa section is in the basement of the building on 64 street here and is often compared to a dungeon by those who in the normal course of events wait for up to six hours just to submit their applications. “I can’t understand why they can’t take applications faster, “said an expatriate Indian who has lived in the US for over a decade and is a US citizen now. He was waiting in the line to apply for a visa. He came early hoping that he would be able to go for his work but he was doomed to wait till five in the evening before his visa application was accepted.
Others waiting in the line recalled that the US embassy in India has drops in which the applications could be dropped. This would certainly save the time.
After the applicants waste the better part of the day applying for the visas, at the window, they are offered the alternative of paying $30.00 as fee for “Emergency Visas”. Though the wait is longer this enables them to get the visas the same day, often by 6 pm or so instead of the next day. A lot of people pay it thereby hoping to save themselves the wastage of another working day though many call it legalized extortion.
Many of those standing in the lines had posted their passports and had to come to find out what happened to them since the passports were apparently misplaced in the visa section.
In one incident, tempers flared and one old Sikh shouted that he had applied for his lost passport a year ago but had not been given a satisfactory reply by the consulate. “Every time I come I have been told that no reply has come from India. We will make sure that there is no delay in the consulate of Khalistan,” he added.
Those who had submitted their passports for renewal or had lost their passports have not been given new passports for over a year. A group of such people who included a number of Sikhs shouted slogans in the consulate on December 19. Such incidents have taken place on various occasions in the last month. According to sources the consulate officials used to take a bribe of two thousand dollars to issue a passport within a month. “If you needed it earlier, you paid more and for $5,000 you got it in a day,” ‘one person told WSN on the condition of anonymity.
Five officials of the consulate were fired and two senior officers disciplined on charges of “gross inefficiency” (WSN November 24) after it was found that they had allegedly been taking bribes from passport renewal applicants especially Sikhs.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 29, 1989
