Software was cleared of bugs before launch

NEW DELHI: Scores of duplicate passports, issued due to a glitch in the software being used to process applications through the passport Seva Project (PSP), have been surrendered at passport offices
in Bangalore, according to sources. Babu Krishna, a Bangalore resident whose 10-year-old daughter, Rakshit Babu, had been issued two passports, hadsubmitted an online passport application at the Passport Seva Kendra at the Lalbagh office on May 20. Within a month, the passport (J7792170) was delivered at his residence. But a second (J7093331)arrived on July 1. "Both of them hadthe exact same details. I have surrendered the second one. The regional passportoffice (RPO) authorities told me thatit was an unfortunate mistake," Krishnan said.Manjunath Ramachandra had first applied manually for a passport his son,Shreeadithya Manjunath Kashyap, in September2010. "But, when I tried to track the file online, there was no sign of theapplication. Nobody in the RPO couldexplain what had happened to it," said Ramachandra.