The strike by now terminated employees of Suwidha centres has resulted in pendency of applications. The existing centre employees are now finding it tough to clear the backlog.
The employees hired at these centres through Sukhmani Society for Citizen Services have been terminated after they didn’t report on work for long due to being on strike to demand regularisation of their services with Punjab government. Now, new employees have been hired by the firm BLS private limited that is managing the Suwidha centres.
Basant Singh, district manager of Suwidha centres said that about 30% of the applications filed during the strike period of September 9 till October 3 are yet to be cleared. “We are working on clearing the backlog of applications and same will be done within a week or so,” he said.
“After the termination of services of earlier employees, the new employees have been recruited. At present, we have 275 employees but require 15 more to be deputed at district Suwidha centre. To reduce the work load at district-level centre, we are motivating people to apply for services at Suwidha centres opened at tehsil and village level,” he added.
At present, there are 124 Suwidha centres in the district of which, one is type-1 at district headquarter, 34 of type-2 at tehsil level and 89 of type-3 at village level.
Vikas Sharma, a resident of Paras Ram Nagar said that he had applied for renewal of arms licence but couldn’t deposit fee at the Sudiwdha centre due to strike. “Despite completing the required formalities and getting the forms signed from competent authorities, I couldn’t deposit the fee for over a month due to strike which has delayed renewal of my arms licence,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Vikas Sharma, a resident of Paras Ram Nagar said that he had applied for renewal of arms licence but couldn’t deposit fee at the Sudiwdha centre due to strike. “Despite completing the required formalities and getting the forms signed from competent authorities, I couldn’t deposit the fee for over a month due to strike which has delayed renewal of my arms licence,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Harpal Singh, a resident of Naseebpura village said, “I had applied for transfer of ownership of weapon to my son Manpreet Singh but hadn’t been able to do so for past one month due to strike.”
However, additional deputy commissioner, Parampal Kaur Sidhu denied any pendency of work. Deputy commissioner, Bathinda, Basant Garg said that the Suwidha Centre employees who were employed through Sukhmani Society have been terminated as they hadn’t reported for long on work and they also didn’t reply to termination letters given to them on account of their absence. He, however, said that district administration has no role in recruiting the new employees in these Centres.