Ministry of External Affairs issues clarification on doing away with passports’ last page

As reported on Friday, the Ministry of External Affairs had said that passports will soon stop serving as a valid proof of address and the last page of the same will cease to be printed.

"As the last page of the passport would not be printed now, the passport holders with ECR (Emigration Check Required) status would be issued a passport with orange passport jacket and those with non-ECR status would continue to get a blue passport," an MEA spokesperson had said. 

This step is being seen as government’s big push to the Aadhaar Cards. 

Further clearing the air on the decision, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said the decision was taken after a report was presented by a joint panel of Foreign Ministry and Women and Child Development ministry officials who recommended to protect the details of the citizen such as names of father/legal guardian, mother, spouse, and address contained on the last page of the passport. 

As the last page of the passport would not be printed now, the passport holders with ECR status would be issued a passport with orange colour passport jacket and those with non-ECR status would continue to get a blue passport.

The new passport booklets would be designed by the Indian Security Press (ISP), Nasik and till such time the passports and other travel documents would continue to be printed with the last page and the existing passports would continue to remain valid till the date of expiry printed in the passport booklet.