Striking work since May 26 for a salary hike and regularisation, over 200 Sewa Kendra operators have been slapped with contract closure notices over absence from duty, which has left at least 18 centres non-operational, causing severe hardship to citizens.
The state has 543 Sewa Kendra, maintained and managed by Terracis Citizen Service LLP through over 2,200 contractual operators.
Prabhjot Singh, the Punjab project head of Sewa Kendras, confirmed the contract closures, stating that the operators were being paid in line with the minimum wages defined by the state government regulations. “The government had already increased their salary to ₹15,000 in April. Further, after revision of minimum wages from May 1, they will receive the updated amount even in the May salary,” he explained.
“We have already issued them three warnings, asking to return to duty. But they didn’t relent, forcing us to take action,” he said, adding that the government imposed a fine of ₹50,000 for every single day a centre remained closed, so they were prioritising hiring of replacements.
Sharing the protesters’ concerns, Baljinder Singh, state president of the Sewa Kendra Mulazim Union Punjab, said, “For an operator who joined in 2016, the starting salary was ₹8,700, and 10 years later, it is only ₹10,200. Even a help desk staffer’s salary has increased only to ₹11,500 from ₹9,500 in 2016. But a fresh hire will be paid the same salary, even when their seniors have more experience and handle more work.”
{{/usCountry}}Sharing the protesters’ concerns, Baljinder Singh, state president of the Sewa Kendra Mulazim Union Punjab, said, “For an operator who joined in 2016, the starting salary was ₹8,700, and 10 years later, it is only ₹10,200. Even a help desk staffer’s salary has increased only to ₹11,500 from ₹9,500 in 2016. But a fresh hire will be paid the same salary, even when their seniors have more experience and handle more work.”
{{/usCountry}}When contacted, cabinet minister for governance reforms and public grievances Aman Arora said there were 543 Sewa Kendras in the state, out of which some were non-operational due to the strike, adding that penalty for this will be decided after consulting officials.
About whether the operators’ services will be regularised, Arora ruled it out, stating that they had been hired by a contractual company. “There are no plans to regularise these operators for now,” he said.