Virtually launching 56 services newly added to the Sewa Kendras, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday slammed the previous SAD-BJP Government for transforming this unique initiative, he had launched in his previous term, into “loss-making white elephants” with their inefficiency and ineptness.
Underlining the importance of changing the way of working in new digitised era to make it more transparent and efficient, Capt Amarinder said that his Government was committed to bring in greater transparency and efficacy in governance by taking the total number of citizen-centric services available at these Kendras to 500 in the next three months.
With 56 newly-added services at the Sewa Kendras, the number now stands at 327, with a daily footfall of 60,000.
The Chief Minister directed the state Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan to ensure that more services are included in the portfolio of these Kendras in a time-bound manner, with a call centre all set to be launched next month to enable citizens to lodge their grievances with total ease.
He also directed the Governance Reforms Department to tie up with the Department of Posts to immediately begin home delivery of documents as in the case of passports.
Blaming the Akalis for the unviable, poorly-managed and underutilized Sewa Kendras resulting in a huge drain on the state exchequer, Capt Amarinder said that as many as 2,144 Sewa Kendras were running with minimal footfall and poor delivery of services, while only 170 government services were available in these Kendras under the previous regime.
Besides, a sum of Rs 400 crore was recklessly spent on constructing these white elephants, which cost Rs 250 crore annually to the State Government to run these centres.
“Congress Government, on coming to power in 2017, decided at its very first Cabinet meet to establish Unified Service Delivery Centres for online delivery of services,” the Chief Minister recalled.
Apart from this, a conscientious decision was taken for amalgamation of all the existing centres such as Suvidha Centres, Saanjh Kendras, Fard Kendras, etc with complete backend computerization and digitization to ensure public delivery system in a seamless manner.
“The rationalization led to reduction in the number of Sewa Kendras from 2147 to 516, and subsequent fresh tendering transformed the project into a self-sustaining revenue sharing contract model, with no burden on the state exchequer,” he added.
Noting that the State Government started earning Rs six crore annually from these Sewa Kendras rather than paying for its running, the Chief Minister said that consequently, the number of services was increased to 327 from 170 being provided during the tenure of SAD-BJP government. Thus, the present Congress Government reversed a huge annual loss of Rs 256 crore imposed on the State Exchequer by the previous SAD-BJP government, he noted.
The Chief Minister also directed the Department to expedite delivery of Smart Ration Cards and Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana through the Kendras.
Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan said that the Sewa Kendras, being run in PPP mode, are benefitting 5.5 lakh people every month at the moment, and the number would now go up with the launch of 56 new services through the centres.
Additional Chief Secretary Governance Reforms Anirudh Tiwari said that 516 Sewa Kendras are currently operational in urban and rural areas of the state with a daily footfall of 60,000 and providing employment to more than 5,000 youth.
Among the new services added include issuance of RC, driving licence appointment booking, NOC for inter-state transfer of vehicles, change of address, Passport Verifications, Arms License verifications, Registration of Foreigners, Issue of NoCs, Copy of Untraced Reports, among others.