How to get Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) in India

(27-1-2015 India-as-superpower) - Getting Police clearance certificate in India is thought to be most difficult thing to get(If you donot want to pay the demanded bribe to police personal). Rightly so as one would probably not get his police clearance certificate if he doesnot pay the demanded money. In this blog post I would give detailed description of whole process of applying for police clearance certificate in India.

Getting a Police Clearance Certificate has different application phases from which every application must pass. I would also give information about government fees wherever applicable. Following are different steps for each Police Clearance Certificate application

1. Fill Police Clearance Certificate application form: Filling of police clearance certificate form is the first step for getting your police certificate. For this the applicant has to goto office of Commissioner of police and fill the application form for Police Clearance Certificate. This form includes information about your house address, Passport number and other personal details. Don't forget to carry your passport size photograph alongwith and attach it on the application form.

2. Submit completed application form: Once you have completely filled the PCC application form, you need to submit the form to the designated public counter(present at office of Commissioner of police office). Person would enter your application details to their database, one copy of passport's front and back page can also be submitted alongwith the form. After he fills your data onto system, get ready for getting your photo clicked on the spot. After photo is clicked then the person would forward your PCC application to the Police station under which your house address falls. He would give you application number.

3. Clearance from Police Station: Next step is to get a recommend PCC certificate from the police station of your area. Once your online application is taken up by police station, you would get a phone call from Police Station to come to police station with documents(2 identity cards - aadhar card, passport etc). You would get a form of neighbour evidence for each of the applicant. This form needs acknowledgment of two persons who know you. You need to paste two of their passport size photos and copy of one ID proof (voter card, Driving license etc). Submit this form to the police station along with your two id proof's. Application would now be moved for getting signature of the SHO on it. Once the SHO signs your application then the staff at police station updates your online application and step 3 is done after you get clearance from SHO. This step cannot be completed if you donot give the asked bribe or if you donot know any person of police links in your district. So you need to do any one of them.

4. Clearance from ACP of your area: After the SHO signs your form, he would give the form to you for getting it signed by the ACP of your area. This step doesnot need any bribery and can be completed without paying any money(other then legal fees). Deposit INR 50 per application as legal fees and paste the receipt along with your file. Now your this step of getting clearance from office of ACP is done. They would update your online application from their perspective.

5. Clearance from Commissioner of Police - Once an applicant completes step 1-4 he is ready to submit his application form at office of commissioner. This step happens at the same counter where you submitted your application form (Step 2). Attendant would check your processed data online and would show you the details of application data(for any errors in name, address), check details carefully and give ok for this data. This person would now take print of the Poilce Clearance Certificate and get it signed from office of Commissioner of Police and hand it over to you.

Cheers Now you have your PCC in your hand and probably whole process is now clear to you.

The same process can be applied through website of Passport seva

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Applying passport in tatkal quota in India

(26-1-2015 India-as-superpower) - Many of the passport applicants have not so good experience of applying passport in India. Since now taking an appointment for passport application is automated and available online, It has become much easier now to get an Indian passport.

Recently I applied passport for my minor son and thought of penning down all the sequence of events/steps which everyone has to follow while applying for minor's passport under tatkal service.

Following are the steps which a person has to undergo while applying for minor's passport under tatkal seva:

1. Get online appointment: One has to sign-up for the government of India, ministry of external affairs website passport application website. After sign up one has to fill all the fields required for fresh passport application and fill all the fields for minor applicant. User has two options for filling up passport form:

a)Download form and fill it offline and then upload it after completing the form
b) fill and save the data online.

Both the methods need good internet connection. There are some 4-5 screens which would ask for information needed for completing the application, Press SAVE button after filling all the mandatory fields of each page. Once you have entered all the data then verify it's correctness and press SAVE and SUBMIT button. This would save your information and give you a ARN number. Now click on pay fees and book appointment link. You would probably get appointment of next working day, If applying tatkal quota. If you are applying under normal quota then you would get slot available on closest date(which can be 10 days away). Since I applied for appointment on saturday, I got appointment for monday morning.

2. Gather your required documents: I started gathering below mentioned documents needed for minor's passport for tatkal passport:
a) Passport copy of both parents (front and back page). If Spouse name is endorsed on at least one of the parents passport then police verification is not needed

b) Birth Certificate of minor: Carry a photocopy and original birth certificate of minor applicant.
c) Marriage certificate of parents: Marriage certificate is not mentioned on governments website but is often asked by documents collector/verifier at the suvidha center.
d) Identity proof/address proof of parents: Carry Identity proofs of parents(aadhar card, ration card, voter card, landline bill, bank passbook) would do. I gave Aadhar card for me and spouse.
e) Annexure H on plain paper: Fill the annexure H declaration and print it on a plain paper(A4 size).
f) Notary attested Annexure I: Annexure I declaration by parents is needed for applying minors passport in tatkal category, get it attested by notary. This costs INR 100 at my city and 10-15 mins to get it from courts. Carry the original parents passport's, marriage certificate, address proof's, minor applicants birth certificate. Stack all the documents in a file and keep printout of appointment letter along-with it.

3. Reach designated PSK: On your day of appointment for passport, it is advised to reach the Passport seva kendra at least 15 mins in advance to your scheduled timing.

4. Get your appointment letter checked: Security personal at entry of PSK would ask for your appointment letter and check the timings and would allow you to enter the Passport seva kendra. Now the whole process would passport application process would take at least an hour.

5. Get token number: When you get entry to PSK then you have to go to counter and get token number for your appointment. Person at counter would ask for all the documents which I have mentioned in step 2 and check the originals too. Then they would give you token number. for applying in tatkal your token is prefixed with letter 'T' followed by number.

6. Document uploading and completion: Next step is going to counter number starting with 'A'. There are numerous A counters inside a PSK. Here they would collect all the photocopies of documents and upload it to their database. Person would get your biometrics, thumb impression in case of minors. It is generally done in 15-20 mins

7. Document verification: After completing counter 'A' formalities, you have to wait till the tv screen shows a 'B' counter number against your token number. Once it is displayed goto corresponding counter 'B' and get your original documents verified. Time taken is generally 5-10 mins.

8. Grant Section Counter 'C': After finishing document verification at counter B, wait till your token number is assigned to officer at counter 'C', C number counter's are passport grant counters and may verify your documents again. Time taken 5-10 mins.

9. You are done: After counter C processes your file, you would get a receipt for passport application and minor's passport would arrive in 3-5 day's time at your address mentioned while filling the online passport form. This is because of no police verification step involved in case of minor's passport.

Hope that now you would get a good pre-understanding of passport application process and different steps involved in it. If you feel like thanking for this post then do press like button or share this post with friends.

Falling global Oil prices and USA link to it

Greetings from India-as-superpower blog

As an Indian the news about falling crude oil prices bring cheers on our face as it reduces our oil import bill, and since petrol and diesel prices are now linked to market directly it reduces the retail prices, It also helps the Ruling party which increases excise rates on petrol to fill their money chests. We all are very happy and so are almost all of the oil importing countries. Other thing which makes us even more happy is that the prices would reduce further till mid 2015 and if Indian government feels that their pockets have no space left for further excise duty hike we might see further decrease in retail prices of both petrol and diesel in coming weeks.

The big question which arises is :

Why are prices of oil falling and who is doing this and why?

Answer to this question is not very difficult and is infact a single word - USA, Now why US would do this? and answer to this is to get more control/share of global oil market. I would explain the 'How' part in following text.

This all starts from what is known as shale oil, which is a substitute for crude oil. United States of America has world's largest deposit of shale oil and gas, and US oil companies such as Shell have started producing shale oil from oil shale on commercial level if I iterate their words 'shale oil exploration can be sustained at cost as low as $18 per barrel. Don't be too happy now as it might never reach to this level(even in present scenario). USA is flooding market/using shale oil and has drastically reduced it's oil import bill, thus forcing prices to fall and make other OPEC countries to cut oil production.

World is currently witnessing over supply of oil, which is much more then what it needs. Since the demand and supply principle is basic for pricing of any commodity, hence fall in price is very logical. At this stage next question which comes to our mind is quite obvious:

Why would oil producing countries do nothing in controlling the supply?

Answer to this question is again a single word - USA, and I'll explain why USA would do this. US has started commercial exploration of oil shale and it needs market for it. Present global oil supply market share is very well divided between Middle east, Iran, Russia, Venezuela and Iraq apart from some other small suppliers. USA wants to increase it's share and then govern the whole oil pricing globally. Hence it has flooded the markets with shale oil. Since it has deep pockets it can sustain any price levels for much more time when compared to conventional oil producers of the world.

There is also political factors involved in this which is further forcing USA to refrain from cutting oil supply. Iran, Russia, Venezuela are not allies of USA and are rather against it diplomatically, economically, politically(you can add more terms here), Venezuela has 95 percent of government revenues coming from oil export, Russia has 70 percent of money coming from oil export. Falling oil prices have already playing it's intent with ruble down by 60 percent. Russia's attack on Ukraine is probably the reason. budget deficits of these three countries are rising and soon economies would see major cuts in government spending . This fall would also weaken Iraq and Syria (including the areas controlled by ISIS) as this terror organization would get too less money from oil which they sell.

Oil producing countries (OPEC) have decided to refrain from cutting output fearing that US would increase shale oil output further and get hold of their present market share. Hence in long term what I feel is that falling oil prices shall have a positive effect on world and oil importing countries as these countries(including India) would contain their budget deficit.

Probably by 2020 USA would become biggest oil produces of the world and would be called 'Saudi America' sounds funny but is very effective.

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Deregulating Petrol and Diesel price benefits Political class the most!

Welcome to Indiaassuperpower, your one stop blog for views on India and Indian politics.

Recently Government deregulated Diesel pricing in India, hence making both Petrol and Diesel prices dependent on the global oil market dynamics. Actually government boasted about this bold step and rightly so as it ended subsidy burden which government carried from so many years.

So I wanted to stick to the basics and gather information about who benefits the most from this move(apart from the Government)? Any guesses whom it would benefit even more?

Ok I'll start with a real life scenario where it is clear that this move benefits the political class the most, I can also reiterate the same as 'Political class would use this move for their monetary benefit rather then working for society' and following describes how it benefits them:

We all are aware that almost all of the private transport companies(road transport/rail transport etc) are owned and controlled by the political class and we also know major reason for the same, that transport business (bus transport) is a business where you get a lot of hard cash at end of the day, and in India nothing can match the power of hard cash(we have seen this during voting days when cash is distributed freely).

Diesel prices have shrinked by more then 10 percent in last 6 months, but what I have noticed is that the transport companies(or any other businesses which has diesel as their major input cost) have not decreased the ticket prices by a single paisa in last 6 months(I can confirm this for Punjab where I have recently traveled in buses owned by ruling politicians of state) and you donot have to be super intelligent to say that hence this scenario would be in all Indian states, and we all are well aware of the fact that whenever there is slight increase in the diesel price we can see immediate increase in ticket prices. Present transport fares are ones which were prevelant when diesel was atleast 10 percent expensive then today, but there has been no decline in the fares

. Now forget about private transport companies owned by Indian politicians, lets talk about railways. There has been regular rise in prices of train fares in past while we know that Diesel prices have actually declined. Hence the extra money collected clearly benefits the already super rich politicians, rather then the poor who travel in sleepers and second class bogies by spending their hard earned money.

Now the big question is that:
In an economy where government has deregulated the price of Diesel and Petrol, Why there has been no measures to make transportation costs linked to fuel costs? particularly when the prices of oil are decreasing. JUST for filling coffins of the political class?

I don't know if someone might have thought on same lines....but according to me it is actually a daylight robbery being committed on roads and railways by the political class.

It has also provided a free hand to government to increase excise duty on petrol and diesel in name of controlling fiscal deficit.

Concluding this post I strongly believe that the sector which has diesel as major input material for them should also be directly linked with the prices. ie ticket fares of railways/buses/autos/three-wheelers should increase/decrease as the prices of crude oil increases/decreases every fortnight, as otherwise this robbery by political class would continue and they would keep on filling their coffins and poor mango-man would keep on purchasing overpriced bus and train tickets.

What are your views about the same, Do comment for a healthy discussion. THANKS for reading and if you like it that share it!