Tuesday May 14, 2013
Public should be informed of disruption earlier, say passport renewal applicants
By PRIYA MENON
priya@thestar.com.my
Photo by YAP CHEE HONG
Waiting: Applicants gathering outside the Immigration Department in Shah Alam to apply for renewal of their passports. MEMBERS of the public who went to the Kelana Jaya Immigration Department yesterday were disappointed when services at the passport renewal counters were disrupted.
The crowd, which had gathered as early as 7.30am to renew their passports, were informed about the system malfunction at the centre.
The notices put up at the Kelana Jaya and Shah Alam Immigration Department offices stated that the disruption was due to the nationwide exercise to upgrade existing machines to polycarbonate passport machines.
J. Raj, 36, said he arrived at the department in Kelana Jaya at 8am yesterday and found that a long queue of people had already formed.
“I went to the department on Friday morning as well but found it closed to facilitate works to upgrade the system. The officers told us to go to the Jalan Duta Immigration Department but the situation over there was the same,” he said.
Hoping the works would have been completed, Raj went back to the office in Kelana Jaya yesterday but found that the system was still disrupted.
“It was such a waste of time.
“A family was there as well. They had brought their children along to apply for passports. The children missed school to do this but the day was wasted,” he said.
An agent at the Kelana Jaya Immigration Department, who declined to be named, said there were disruptions from Friday.
“When the system was up and running, we immediately advised all those waiting to submit their documents for processing,” he said.
Due to the disruption, the departments also could not provide the passports within an hour, as practised before.
A check by StarMetro at the Kelana Jaya Immigration office yesterday revealed that the department had started using the upgraded system.
Raj said he was dissappointed that the department had not informed the public about the problem earlier.
“As it was a nationwide exercise, we should have been alerted about upgrading works and not find out about it only after going there,” he added.
Source:
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