HYDERABAD: While it is a known fact that many Mee Seva franchise centres are overcharging for services provided, the franchise owners say that it is because of the middlemen who are spoiling the credibility of their services.Earlier, on September 30 The New Indian Express reported that a Mee Seva centre in Bharath Nagar Colony in Hyderabad charges `150 for updating of Aadhar card, while the actual price is `25. Also, in a letter addressed to R Rajiha, an e-district manager of Hyderabad by a social activist Dr Lubna Sarwath, she said that a Mee Seva centre in Vijaya Nagar Colony was overcharging.
“Mee Seva centre is charging `150 for each 10th application whereas, in the prospectus, it was written that apart from tenth fee student should pay `30 towards charges,” the letter read. Responding to corruption allegations, franchise owners squarely shifted the blame to middlemen. Middlemen operate to physically deliver certificates of consumers to government officials either for the purpose of updating or generation of revenue related certificates, they said.
According to the Electronic Service Delivery Rules, 2011 one of its primary purposes is to “deliver public services through electronically enabled kiosks”, but the fact remains that ‘paperless transaction is still a far-fetched dream.’Explaining a common modus operandi on how the middlemen have become a mafia making a moolah, Abdul Moheed, General Secretary of Telangana Mee Seva Franchise Owner’s Welfare Association said that the middlemen have direct contacts with the staff at Mandal Revenue Offices (MRO) and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) making their task of getting work done easily. “Usually it takes more than a week to get an income certificate through our centres but if a consumer approaches a middleman, they would get it within three days. The reason is that they have monetary transactions with MRO and GHMC officials,” he said.
This will promote the agents to charge their own prices defeating the purpose of a system that is getting wasted making us the victims of their fault, he added.However, the Mee Seva authorities maintain that since the transactions are numerous, the condition would prevail. “We are doing 1,50,000 transactions every day it is not possible to monitor on 150 sub-registrar offices for keeping a tab on such people. Such challenges will prevail,” said GT Venkateswar Rao, Commissioner of Electronic Service Delivery at the press conference here on Saturday.
It should be, however, noted that Mee Seva officials inspect such faulty middlemen or centres only after a complaint is lodged by a consumer. When asked about the same, the commissioner said that: “The 31 e-managers appointed are for the said purpose and are supposed to check if the franchises are working according to the guidelines.”“Things have changed a lot from past two years. I do not say that it has disappeared but the system has definitely changed,” he added.