Abrar Nabi
Srinagar, Apr 7 : Over 1,000 educated professionals who set up ‘Khidmat Centres’ across Jammu and Kashmir on the assurance of the J&K Bank nearly 17 years ago have now demanded regular employment in the Bank, alleging they were lured with false promises that left them debt-ridden and professionally ruined.
In a detailed representation submitted to the Bank and the Union Territory administration accessed news agency Kashmir News Service (KNS), the Jammu & Kashmir Khidmat Centres Association said the Bank, as the designated Service Centre Agency (SCA) under the Centre’s National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), had promised hundreds of government-to-citizen (G2C) and business-to-citizen (B2C) services through these centres after they were established in 2009.
“We were told, ‘Now you are not ordinary people, you are entrepreneurs backed by the J&K Bank. A car and bungalow are very small things. Your Khidmat Centres are going to become hubs of business activity’,” the Association quoted Bank officials as telling selected candidates — many of them MBA, M.Sc and BCA degree holders — at the time of recruitment.
However, the Association claimed, none of the promised services — including land records, ration cards, electoral services, pension disbursement, and electricity bill collection — ever materialised despite repeated follow-ups and clear government directives.
Citing minutes of a February 2010 meeting chaired by the then Chief Secretary, the Association said it was decided that pension disbursement for 4-5 lakh beneficiaries and NREGA payments would be routed through Khidmat Centres. Another meeting in February 2011, chaired by the then IT Minister, explicitly directed that all G2C services, including power department bill payments, be provided only through these centres.
“Yet the Bank denied even electricity bill collection to us — a service that was promised hundreds of times. If the Bank could not share that platform, what else could we expect?” the representation said.
The professionals pointed to a letter written by the then J&K Bank Chairman to the Chief Secretary in January 2017, which admitted that the income of Khidmat Centre professionals was “just enough for repayment of installments/servicing of interest on loans obtained by VLEs from the Bank.”
“The Bank itself acknowledged our misery in writing. Yet we continued to wait,” the Association said.
On May 13, 2019, the Association met the then Bank Chairman Parvez Ahmad, where the present Chairman R.K. Chibber was also present. According to the representation, the Chairman promised to explore a permanent solution and made it clear that the Bank had “no objection” to absorbing all Khidmat Centre professionals as regular employees, provided the government raised no objection.
But before any action could be taken, the Chairman was removed on June 9, 2019. Months later, the abrogation of Article 370 and subsequent communication shutdown further stalled their movement.
The Association has rejected temporary measures offered by the Bank over the years — including loan documentation work and revised commission structures — calling them “lollipops” with no long-term future.
“Loan documentation has no future. With technological advancements and digital authentication, this service will vanish soon. We need permanent, regular employment. We have lost the prime of our youth waiting for promises to be fulfilled,” the Association said.
The professionals also alleged that the Bank failed to convert their Business Correspondent locations into Ultra Small Branches — a move promised in a 2012 Bank circular — and instead began recruiting for similar positions under changed nomenclature.
“We are pro-state and respect our democratic institutions. But we cannot be treated as slaves. The Bank made us believe. Now the Bank must rehabilitate us,” the Association demanded. (KNS)
