Vijayawada: People from 13 districts in AP would land in severe trouble to get required certificates and other services due to the bandh call by nearly 9,000 Mee Seva Centres, seeking fulfillment of demands of Mee Seva Operators’ Welfare Association Andhra Pradesh (MSOWAAP), from January 17. Operators of Mee Seva Ce-ntres had been demanding in-crease in commission, provision to collect charges for additional scanning of copies, upgrading the server to restrain frequent hanging, providing minimum wages to operators and to resolve other issues.
MSOWAAP president C. Sreevatsan said that e-Seva Centres were begun in 2003. Later, the services were begun in rural areas in the name of Rajiv Internet Village and further, the name was changed to Mee Seva Centres.
He said that majority of the rural centres were running in losses as they have been getting only a nominal commission of Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 which is spend to pay rent, electricity and maintenance. He said the urban centres are offering services to 36 government departments but the meagre commission has been a trouble for the Mee Seva Centre operators. Mr Sreevatsan lamented that the Mee Seva operators have been getting very meagre commission.
Hence, the government should give '25 as commission per application to A grade Mee Seva centres and '30 to B grade Mee Seva Centres as the government has been collecting '45 per applications as fee.
He stated that 20,000 people were working in the Mee Seva centres in 13 districts and they are facing severe trouble due to the meagre commission.
MSOWAAP leaders Anjan Kumar, K. Ugandhar, C.V. Ramana Babu and others have urged the government to provide Rs 15,000 per month income to each Mee Seva Centre, increase of scanning charge to Rs 5 from the earlier Rs 2, exemption of GST, appointing Revision Committee to enhance the commissions, provision of '10 lakh as ex gratia for the death of an operator, sanctioning of government buildings for Mee Seva Centres, providing electricity and AP Fibre Net Internet connections to Mee Seva centres treating it as special category and resolving other demands.
They said that several times they asked the government to resolve their issues and the officials promised to resolve it by December 31 but in vain. Hence, MSOWAAP called for Mee Seva Centres’ bandh due to unavoidable circumstances.
