Sewa kendras, a key initiative of the then Akali-BJP government
Sewa kendras, a key initiative of the then Akali-BJP government, might survive under Congress rule.
Sources in the government told The Tribune that no decision had been taken so far to shut the 2,146 sewa kendras that provided 153 citizen-centric services to the people. However, it has been decided to amalgamate at least two parallel service centres — fard kendras and transport kendras — with the sewa kendras. No call has been taken yet on the saanjh kendras, which offer policing-related services.
Officials in the state Governance Reforms Department said rationalisation of the sewa kendras could be done soon, once the rates at which 153 services are being provided are rationalised too.
“Deliberations are on to determine how many centres are needed. Feedback is also being sought from the districts on how many of these kendras should be run and their public use,” said a top officer in the department, adding that the focus was on integration of all services and infrastructure created for all these centres.
These citizen-service centres were initially named suvidha centres. These were run by the Sukhmani Society, headed by the respective Deputy Commissioner. In August last year, suvidha centres had made way for the sewa kendras. Between August 2016 and January this year, 2,146 kendras were established at the district and subdivisional levels and one each for a cluster of villages covering a population of up to 10,000. These were handed over to an independent service provider; the staff and equipment was provided by the operator. Sewa kendras initially offered 77 services.
Officials said these centres were meant to be largely self-sustaining, with the operator trying to recover the costs by offering the services. The viability gap was to be given by the state government. However, till date, the average monthly revenue generated by these centres is Rs 3.82 crore, as against the monthly expenditure of Rs 17-18 crore. Though the Congress government has tried to bridge this gap by recently hiking the service charges, it has not made much difference. Thus, it has been decided to rationalise the number of centres and save costs.