Service Centres Turn Into ‘Punishment Centres’ as Portal Outages and Strike Disrupt Public Services: BJP
NAKODAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticised the Punjab Government over the recurring failure of the Connect Punjab portal and the ongoing strike by service centre employees, alleging that the twin issues have brought essential public services to a standstill and caused widespread inconvenience to citizens across the state.
Addressing mediapersons, BJP Jalandhar (Rural) District President Munish Dhir said that service centres, established to provide hassle-free public services, had now turned into "punishment centres" for the people. He alleged that the repeated collapse of the Connect Punjab portal had exposed the state government's claims of digital governance and efficient administration.
Dhir said that long queues were being witnessed at service centres every day, but applicants were returning empty-handed as the portal remained non-functional. He claimed that several key services, including issuance of birth and death certificates, income, residence and caste certificates, as well as Aadhaar-related services, had been severely affected due to the technical failures.
He further alleged that senior citizens, women, students, farmers, labourers and daily wage earners were bearing the brunt of the situation. According to him, many people travel from distant villages after spending money on transportation and sacrificing their daily wages, only to be informed that the portal is not working, resulting in both financial loss and wastage of time.
The BJP leader maintained that a government unable to keep its digital infrastructure functional had no moral authority to make claims about transparent and efficient governance. He described the repeated disruption of the Connect Punjab portal as evidence of administrative inefficiency and mismanagement on the part of the Punjab Government.
Demanding immediate corrective measures, Dhir urged the state government to restore the Connect Punjab portal without delay, rectify all technical glitches on a priority basis and introduce an offline mechanism for essential public services until the portal becomes fully operational. He also sought accountability from the officials responsible for the disruption and called for appropriate action to prevent similar hardships in the future.
Concluding his statement, Dhir said that timely access to government services is the right of every citizen and not a favour extended by the government. He alleged that if the administration fails to deliver even basic public services, its claims of good governance lose credibility
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