Passport is not only a 'travel document', it is also a document of citizen's identity, political, legal and economic existence of the nation. But the credibility of the passport of a country like Nepal itself is in crisis. In the latest report of Henley and Partners, Nepal's passport is ranked 95th.

Nepal has got a total of 38 points. Nepal's economic and political trends are mainly responsible for why Nepal's passport rankings are so far behind. There is no need to bother about many things to ask the reason for that, we have not been able to print the same passport ourselves.

Most countries in the world print passports internally, which improves the nation's self-reliance and access to services for its citizens. But Nepal still has to depend on foreign companies for these essential documents.

After 2046, liberal economic and social policies have led to an increase in the tendency to go abroad for employment, and with the increase in economic strength, people are also going abroad to travel, study and participate in programs. According to statistics, about 5,000 citizens take passports every day. This means, a passport is no longer a luxury, but a minimum requirement of a citizen.

Again, passports are not distributed by the government for free, for this, a fee of at least five thousand has been collected from the citizens. However, there has always been trouble in Nepal in the contract of printing passports from the money collected from the citizens.

After all, why can't the government itself print passports? Why not take an honest initiative? The credit of citizens and the country has been affected by the fact that the money and data of citizens are always sent to foreign companies for printing passports and the case is always going on in Adda court to decide which company to give it to.

Currently, each passport printing costs US$8.61. After this amount reaches millions, billions of rupees go into the hands of foreign companies. Not only passports, but also documents such as bank notes, smart licenses, postage stamps, national identity cards, check books, excise stickers etc. are being printed abroad. In the

setting, details such as tenders being invited and contracts awarded at high prices are being made public in order to benefit a certain company. Cases are also ongoing. Due to this, time and energy is being spent from the organizations related to those documents to the court that will mark the Uzurbajur. At the same time, the message is being sent to citizens that corruption is happening everywhere.

This has also raised doubts about the government officials who honestly look at the national interest and move forward with the process. On the other hand, citizens are deprived of getting the documents they need to receive on time. In the case of smart license, about 32 lakh citizens have completed the entire process for the driver's license, but they have to walk with the revenue bill because they have not received the license card. The long-term solution to both these problems is to develop printing facilities in Nepal which can ensure a cheaper, safer option. 

The government has also established Surakshan Printing Center to print sensitive documents like passports, bank notes, smart licenses, postage stamps, national identity cards, excise stickers in Nepal. Although a security press has been constructed in Kavre, the infrastructure is inadequate, and the government is not interested in running the press. When the passport department requested information from the center on June 3 last year for printing passports this year, the center replied on November 14 - we cannot print passports yet.

The international tender process has been started as an alternative after the government machinery itself expressed its inability to print government documents. Although it is clear that many government agencies are more interested in sending passports outside the country than printing them within the country, otherwise there is no other reason why the press that was brought in at the expense of the public budget should be stopped and contracted. But it is necessary to warn the citizens - complete the structure of the Security Printing Center, hire skilled personnel, increase technical capacity and make the press fully operational.