Jaipur: The regional passport office here has issued a record 1,00,323 passports till June this year.

Stating this at a press meet here yesterday, regional passport officer, Shrawan Kumar Verma said a record number of passports were issued in the month of March this year that went up to 23,971. Mr Verma said even with a staff crunch of 54 people, the passport office has been able to achieve such a record.

Talking about the increasing number of applications received, he said each year the number is rising with 1,88,214 applications received in 2006. In 2005, the number of applications received was 1,34,968. While in June 2007, the number of applications received have been 90,717.

He said students constitute the major chunk of passport seekers nowadays as MNCs ask for passport number before offering a job.

Talking about online submission of passports applications, he said the facility was started in May this year and at least 10 per cent of people are applying online now, which removes written anomalies to a great extent. He also informed that a proposal have been made and sent to the Education Ministry of teaching the Students in Rajasthan schools about the importance of passports and the intricacies of filling it up and to remove the fear and trouble one generally associates it with. If the Ministry gives the go-ahead, the teaching would start from the new academic session, which begins in July, he added.