AGARTALA, Nov 27 (TIWN): Sudden withdrawal of the hand written passports have led to the immense sufferings of the common people of India for carrying hand written passports to Bangladesh. Since Thursday morning more than 50 people are stuck at the Bangladesh part of the Aukhaura check post as the immigration officer’s has barred the entry of the people to India from Bangladesh with hand written passport.

Officials at Bangladesh part of Aukahura check post denied a visa or entry to a person travelling on a non-machine readable passport fromThursday morning, after getting a circular from the ministry of external affairs. Resulting many stuck at Akahura check post from Thursdaymorning for crossing border of Bangladesh to enter at India, said immigration officer Kajal Das.  

The people who went to Bangladesh with their passport are stopped at Aukhaura check post to enter the land of India as they are carrying the hand written passport 
From Wednesday, the government has stopped considering handwritten passports from Indian citizens. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had given citizens time till November 24 (Tuesday) to get handwritten passports replaced with machine-readable ones (MRPs). 

The government has been issuing MRPs since 2001. Those issued before 2001 and particularly those issued during the mid-1990s with a validity of 20 years fall into the non-MRPs. 

It is to be mentioned here that Hand-written Indian passports are no longer valid from Nov 24 as per government's directive. The government had asked those having hand-written passports to get machine-readable ones having bar codes by November 24.

The government had decided to discontinue hand-written passports in accordance with recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to incorporate biometric data in the machine readable travel documents.

The sudden withdrawn of the handwritten passports had led to the immense sufferings of the Indian people who are stranded at the Bangladesh part of Aukhuara check post to enter the Indian land. As per the orders of the ICAO the immigration officers has stopped the entry of the Indian citizens at the Bangladesh border and are not allowing any one to enter India from Bangladesh.

More than 50 people are stranded at the Bangladesh part of the Akahaura check post since the morning. The people also said that they are stuck because they are carrying handwritten passport and due to sudden withdrawal of the handwritten passport many are stuck.

Indian citizens residing in India and abroad and holding handwritten passports as well as 20-year passports with validity beyond the November 24, 2015 have been advised through public notices to apply for re-issue of their passports well before the deadline in order to avoid any inconvenience in obtaining foreign visa for international travel but even with the sudden withdrawal, the people are facing the heat of the sudden decision.