Punjab Sewa Kendras shut as operators strike over ₹1.5 lakh fines

Work came to a halt at 544 Sewa Kendras across Punjab from Thursday afternoon as operators walked out to protest heavy penalties of up to ₹1.5 lakh imposed on them, leaving people unable to get Aadhaar and other key services.

The operators have said the strike will go on until Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann steps in personally.

The walkout adds to the trouble for the AAP government, which has faced one employee protest after another for more than two months, with the 2027 Assembly elections only months away.

Fined for small mistakes, say operators

Sewa Kendra Employees Union state president Jaswinder Singh Gill said departments and companies linked to the services were fining operators heavily for minor errors or technical glitches in Aadhaar and other citizen services. He called the penalties “inhuman” and said they had pushed staff into deep financial trouble.

“Operators are being fined anywhere between ₹1 lakh and ₹1.5 lakh without any fair process,” said Jaswinder Saini, the union’s Pathankot district president, who led the protest at the Malikpur Sewa Kendra. “With fines this heavy, running these centres is becoming impossible.”

“We have been raising our problems with the Punjab government, the Department of Governance Reforms (DGR) and the companies for a long time, but our demands keep getting ignored,” Saini said.

What the operators want

The operators want the penalty system stopped at once, all old penalties cancelled and a permanent fix for their problems. Gill said the union’s state-level meeting on Thursday evening would decide the next course of action.

Second Sewa Kendra strike this year

This is not the first time these centres have shut down in 2026. Sewa Kendra staff had gone on an indefinite strike on May 26, demanding permanent jobs and higher salaries. As that strike entered its third week, the government asked deputy commissioners to arrange alternative staff to keep the centres running.

String of strikes before polls

The Sewa Kendra protest comes on the heels of a wider employees’ agitation. More than 3 lakh government employees went on mass casual leave on August 27, pressing for pending dearness allowance and other demands. Mann had then said talks would be held only after the strike was called off. The government also ordered show-cause notices to employees whose absence that day was “unauthorised”.

Employees struck again last week. Staff across Punjab took two-day mass casual leave from October 21, hitting work in secretariats, offices and the power corporation. Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa claimed more than 50,000 ministerial staff across 52 departments had been on strike for over a month.