MRPs finally!

REPUBLICA

Kudos to Madhav Kumar Nepal-led government for finally signing a deal with Oberthur Technologies, a French firm, to print Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) on Friday, thereby ending a yearlong row over procuring MRPs from international suppliers despite a significant opposition from the foreign minister and one of the heavyweights of the present cabinet, Sujata Koirala, and unhealthy pressure from various quarters. By giving a go-ahead signal to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) officials to sign a deal with the French firm, despite Koirala’s unfounded and silly objections and obvious displeasure, the cabinet has made the right decision to ease the sufferings, and at times humiliations, suffered by Nepali citizens while traveling abroad because of our handwritten passports with lax security features.

Friday’s deal will also help salvage whatever is left of Nepal’s reputation in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which made it mandatory for all countries to introduce MRPs by April 1, 2010 owing to valid security concerns of many countries. Since Nepal missed the April 1 deadline, it asked for an extension with ICAO, but the country again missed the extended deadline of Aug 1 and had to ask for yet another extension until Dec 31. Because of the way in which the MRP deal had so far progressed, there was a real danger that the Dec 31 deadline too would be missed making it more difficult for Nepalis to travel abroad. However, with Friday’s sealing of the deal with the French firm, Nepalis are hopeful that the government will not have to ask for yet another extension with ICAO, and that they will have the MRPs soon which will save them from hassles at foreign airports.

Although the signing of the deal is a move in the right direction, it does not guaranty that we will not miss the latest deadline. For meeting the third deadline, the government should provide Oberthur Technologies, which is now officially entrusted to print our passports, with all the necessary help it requires, including providing it with an office space in the MoFA premises. As this daily reported on Saturday, the government has to provide the French firm with a secure office space by next Friday to house the equipments necessary to personalize MRPs. While the government is at it, it should explain to the people the real reasons behind the delay in issuing MRPs and initiate actions against those who are guilty. People demand MRPs but they also demand an answer for the repeated delays in printing something as simple as MRPs.