High Commissioner Pranay Verma visited the Indian Visa Application Center (IVAC) at Jamuna Future Park on Monday to take stock of the functioning of the visa services. The visa centre was full of people primarily applying for medical visas to go to India for treatment purposes.
Given the serious threats last week at the Indian High Commission and its installations in Bangladesh, the high commissioner had to shut down operations at IVAC, JFP for a day last week, according to a press release. It was later opened and all the applicants whose appointments slots fell on that day were given an early alternative slot.
Several people who apply for visas are travelling to India for treatment of serious medical conditions. Keeping this humanitarian need in mind, despite the evolving security situation, the High Commission continues to keep the visa centres in Dhaka, Khulna, Sylhet and Rajshahi operational.
The IVAC at Chittagong has been temporarily shut down following the mob attack at the entrance of AHCI Chittagong in the night of 18-19 December, during which stone pelting and threats to break the entrance created serious insecurities for the assistant high commissioner and other officials who live inside the same premises.
During Pranay Verma’s visit to IVAC, IVAC officials flagged the problems of large amount of fake documents being submitted and also the disruption created by middlemen and touts who try to hack into visa servers and create artificial traffic depriving common visa applicants from genuine slots.
The high commissioner assured that these concerns will be raised with relevant authorities in Bangladesh.
