No Meeseva services from May 19?

Hyderabad: All 342 Meeseva services are likely to be affected from March 19 as hundreds of staffers have been served with “termination letters.” It marks an end to three-year contract between service providers and State government.

There are 720 Meeseva staffers working in positions ranging from manager to office boy across the State in 110 centres. Ram Info, which has struck a deal with the government in March 2013, awarded the sub-contract to Vupadhi Techno Services Private Limited and IT Serve Global later. But this is the first time that outsourced staffers have been served with termination letters by the service providers.

The staffers, most of whom have been working for more than 12 years for Meeseva (earlier eSeva), have alleged that the government which has already promoted franchises across the State would transfer the entire government Meeseva centres to the franchisee system, which charge more for each service.

“There are only 55 Meeseva centres in Hyderabad and Rangareddy, which offer best service at a nominal charge. Unfortunately, the franchisee model is being encouraged at the cost of public welfare,” said R Suresh, vice-president of the Twin Cities Mee Seva Employees Association.

Meanwhile, officials pointed out that Meeseva works were being offered on the outsourcing model. Hence, the contract of a service provider would end in three years. The new service providers entering into a contract with government usually continue with the existing staff. “We shall invite tenders and ask them to absorb the current staff,” said a higher official. “The government has put a cap on the number of transactions per day (125 for urban and 75 for rural) at each Meeseva centre.

If it fails to meet the criteria, it may be wound up. The fate of the Meeseva centre will be decided after taking into consideration the number of transactions handled over the last six months," he said. "Under the franchisee model, there is commission fixed for each transaction, while the Meeseva centres are run on salary provided through the service provider. The trend everywhere is to go in for a franchisee model, but we are continuing with the existing model for the sake of competition,” added the official.

Meanwhile, representatives of the service provider said Meeseva staffers were served notices as per the Labour Department norms. “We have informed them about the end of the contract, so that we do not have salary related problems,” said A Srinivas, project manager of Vupadhi Techno Services.