A new and interesting situation seems to have developed now, that I thought of sharing with you.
I had applied for my passport at the Ranchi Passport Office on 15th February 2007.
I had the police verification at the local Police Station in April 2007, and my application was forwarded from there on 16th April 2007.
After this, the next step was supposed to be verification of Identity and other details by a CID Official. This never transpired.
After close to 6 months of having applied, I was wondering exactly which Government Office my application was currently in.
On 14th August, I finally received, out of the blue, my passport by mail. I signed for it and accepted it after duly verifying my Identity.
Only to find that there was a huge mistake. There was someone else's Photograph and Signature on my passport.
All other details : Birth Date, Birth Place, Parent's Names, Passport File No. etc, all match save the photograph and the signature.
The Signature on the photograph reads Sikander Ansari, a mere inch away from the field that reads Given Name : Nikhil Kumar , and Surname : Verma.
I am amazed at the oversight of a government official that allowed an error of such magnitude to occur.
The incident went on my blog, where quite a few friends suggested that I contact a member of the press and bring this thing to light.
You can see the aforementioned Passport at http://nikhilkumarverma.googlepages.com/Passport.pdf or at my blog :http://etscientia.blogspot.com .