Two sisters, Santosh and Heena, from Haryana's Ambala were denied passports by authorities in Chandigarh due to their "Nepalese" appearance, on Wednesday, 1 January.
With the intervention of state Home Minister Anil Vij, who’s home constituency is Ambala, their application has been processed and authorities have been asked to look into the incident.
They have been granted the documents and a probe is on to find out the reasons for the denial of passport initially on the basis of their “Nepali appearance”, a senior passport official told IANS.
"An inquiry has been ordered to look into who wrote the noting and suitable action will be initiated against the erring official," he said.
One of the applicants, in her complaint to Vij, said when they went to the passport office in Chandigarh, they saw “our faces and wrote that we are Nepali.”
"They asked us to prove our nationality," she said.
The minister asked Deputy Commissioner of Ambala, Ashok Sharma, to take up their case appropriately.
Sharma said a few days ago the sisters along with their father Bhagat Bahadur had approached him. He said the passport office had summoned them and passports would be issued to them soon. He added that he has directed the officials to accept applications if the documents are in order.
(With inputs from IANS.)
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