By Express News Service
Published: 11th April 2015 06:00 AM
KOCHI: If the government doesn’t pay heed to the demands raised by the Association of IT Employees, the organisation that represents the Akshaya centres all over the state, then the days of standing in queues to register for Aadhaar cards, voter ID card and submitting application for the Chief Minister’s mass contact programme will be back again. The state convention of Akshaya centres, which was convened on Thursday, has decided to go on a token strike on April 13 to protest the trimming of service charge charged by them.
“On April 13, we will stop important services like Aadhaar card registration, election ID card registration and application for the Chief Minister’s mass contact programme. However,other services such as paying of MVD fees will soon be stopped if our demands are not met. At present we just get Rs 10 for rendering these services. Earlier, for the registration and renewal of the new voter ID the government had set Rs 22 as service charge. This was later increased to Rs 25. The government, however, has now cut it to just Rs 10,” said A D Jayan, general secretary, Association of IT Employees Association.
The association members also said that the government should make the registration procedure free. They demanded that the government should pay the service charge to the Akshaya centres not the applicants. The association warned that if the government fails to agree to the aforesaid demand then the Akshaya centres will carry out registration process only if the service charge is set as Rs 25.
“The seeding of Aadhaar card and renewal of election identity card is a herculean task as it needs electricity, paper, printer and scanning. How will such a meager amount set as service charge will help us to recover our investment? It is not possible to run a centre by charging just Rs 10 for these services,” he added.
At present there are 3,000 Akshaya centres in the state. Ernakulam has around 220.
“Also for the mass contact programme the government has not fixed any service charge. The centres have to bear all the expenses. We have to write the application, scan it and then upload it on the website,” said Siyavudheen, state vice president, Association of IT employees association.
He also alleged that the government is yet to reimburse the amount it owes to the Akshaya centres for the Aadhaar registration done last year.
“3,000 Akshaya centres in the state are running with out any assistance from the government. The IT mission is just a facade for fleecing commission. If the government remains firm on its present stand, then we will be forced to go on indefinite strike,” the association said.