Delivering on the promise of serving the Indian diaspora in a better, effective, and timely manner, the Indian High Commissioner to New Zealand Muktesh Pardeshi, has announced the launch of a Whatsapp service for seeking Consular services.
This was announced in a press release released by the office of the Indian High Commission on social media coinciding with India’s 71st Republic Day celebrations on Sunday, January 26.
“On the happy occasion of the Republic Day of India, High Commissioner of India H. E. Muktesh Pardeshi has unveiled a new Whatsapp service (+64 – 22 – 163- 6989) for seeking information on the status of Consular applications and registering grievances,” the press release said.
This number will, however, not be answered and can only be used for sending Whatsapp messages only.
Speaking to the Indian Weekender more about the purpose and rationale of the service Mr Pardeshi said, “Whatsapp service is for seeking consular services and registering grievances.”
“We understand that despite our various multiple platforms of engaging with applications, sometimes, either application is stuck or there is a delay in timely information which rightly causes some anxiety among the applicants and they try calling us to get clarification.”
“At times, there is a seemingly slow response as so many people are simultaneously trying to speak to us to get to know the status of their applications.”
“Although, completely understandable but it does cause some distractions in timely delivery of consular services.”
“Therefore, in order to help our customers and give them more clarity this service has been launched as an additional mode of communication where applicants can contact us, and we can quietly deliver the service by the end of the day,” Mr Pardeshi said.
Service delivery timeline
Responding further to the query on the timeline of service delivery Mr Pardeshi clarified that the High Commission’s staff would be striving to respond to genuine enquiries by the end of the day.
“However, we encourage people only to use the service once they have given our staff reasonable-time to process the application at the first place,” Mr Pardeshi said.
“It is to say that if someone has applied for an OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) card for the first time, then the normal processing time is 30 working days. So we encourage that anyone seeking the status of their applications should only use Whatsapp service after that time has elapsed, and they have not heard back from our other channels,” Mr Pardeshi clarified.
“High Commission staff is up for the challenge of delivering service digitally.”
Mr Pardeshi also expressed confidence that the High Commission’s staff were up for the challenge of timely and effective delivery of services digitally, and there was no anxiety in putting themselves boldly out on social media.
“In the last three months our staffs have cleared all backlogs of pending applications, and there is no pending application in the system beyond their expected timeline. I have personally monitored the process,” Mr Pardeshi asserted.
“They have brought down the pendency of OCI, visa, passport and other consular services.”
“In fact for the renewal of OCI, we have already announced through our social media channels that we will deliver the service within fifteen working days,” Mr Pardeshi said.