SAD flays shutting down of Sewa Kendras in Punjab

Opposition SAD today termed the ruling Congress' decision to shut down Sewa Kendras in Punjab as "draconian", claiming that several people had lost their jobs because of the state government's move.
Trained youths working in 1,647 Sewa Kendras have been left jobless without any valid explanation, former minister and SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema claimed in a statement here.
"This government has been promising 'ghar, ghar naukari', but it seems to be working to snatch jobs from each and every household in the state. The youths who have lost their jobs due to this draconian decision should be adjusted in other jobs immediately," he said.

The SAD leader said it was also "shocking" that the government had announced that it would house aanganwadis and panchayat ghars in the Sewa Kendras.
"The kendras were constructed at a cost of Rs 200 crore and equipped with modern technology and connected with servers to enable them to provide 78 services, including caste certificate, birth and death services and social security pensions, to the people in both rural and urban areas.
"Instead of taking this reformatory step, which was emulated by other states forward, the Congress government wants to go back and utilise this modern infrastructure to house facilities which are already available to the people, he said.

Cheema said that the concept of the Sewa Kendras, which were in effect unified service delivery centres, came about after much brain storming by the State Governance Reforms Commission.

"The SAD-BJP government came up with the Right to Service Act, 2011, to ensure services being provided at the centres was given in a time-bound manner. The only logic one can see in terminating this unique service is the Congress government's policy to do away with all pro-people initiatives started by the SAD-BJP government," he said.
Cheema said that it seemed the government's intent was to bulldoze its way in the matter and had even come up with a claim that only 500 Sewa Kendras were needed.

"How has the Congress come up with this figure? The Kendras were established in such a way that they provide services to the people at their doorstep," he said.
The SAD leader alleged that by retaining 500 centres the government had proved that it would follow a pick and choose policy and only provide services in certain areas.
"We will not let this discrimination take place and protest to implement the scheme across the state. We also demand that Sewa Kendras, which had cut down on corruption and were providing services to people in a time-bound manner, be restarted immediately," he said.

The government must instead spread awareness about this path breaking revolutionary measure and spread it further by taking more services under its ambit, he added.