HYDERABAD: The celebration event for Meeseva (e-governance) centres in the state touching 10 crore transactions organised by Telangana Meeseva Operators Association (TMOA) on Tuesday, turned sour after minister for Information Technology, KT Rama Rao, was reportedly misinformed about increased operator earnings. “Even though the Meeseva commission rates were revised, we are still struggling to stay afloat,” claimed association members.
The disgruntled operators heard one of the association members on the dais at Ravindra Bharathi announce in the presence of the minister that, “Meeseva operator earnings have gone up by `10,000 to `20,000. They flipped, but only after the minister left the venue.” The event was cut short after the minister left. The operators confronted the association president, Jeevan Prasad, who assured to take up the matter.
“They have misinformed the minister telling him everything going fine. We came all the way here to tell him our grievances,” said Saka Venu from Ganpur mandal, another Meeseva operator.
“The operators in urban areas will earn better up to `15,000 for maybe once a year when the state government announces a new scheme. But those of us operating from villages don’t earn anything close to that.”“We are aware of the issues faced by the operators. If you see their earning over the last three years, they have increased substantially. And the issue of low transactions will be resolved as more government services move online,” said GT Venkateshwarao, Commissioner (ESD) and Special Commissioner (e-Governance), IT, E&C department, Telangana.
There are over 4,000 Meeseva centres operating on a commission basis in the state providing 600 services for 40 state and central government services. The sustainability of running Meeseva centres is crucial for the Digital India and Digital Telangana initiatives to succeed.