The Kerala High Court has directed the State government to consider and take an appropriate decision expeditiously on a representation given by the All Kerala Akshaya Entrepreneurs Confederation seeking to enhance charges for various online services provided by Akshaya centres, before finalising a revised agreement with the Akshaya entrepreneurs.
The directive was passed by Justice N. Nagaresh recently while disposing of a writ petition filed by the federation. The court made it clear that the members of the petitioner shall execute the current agreement and this judgment will not be an excuse for not executing the current agreement.
According to the petitioner, the State government has reiterated time and again that all government-to-citizen services shall only be routed through Akshaya Centres. The petitioner also pointed out that every Akshaya entrepreneur has to execute an agreement with the government. It was in 2013 that an agreement was executed with the entrepreneurs for the first time. They were compelled by the authorities to execute unilateral agreements, the petitioner alleged. In fact, various service fees have not been revised since 2018 and a majority of them find the going tough in the face of increased cost of operations. No discussion had been held with the Akshaya entrepreneurs at any point of time despite a detailed representation on this and various other issues faced by the entrepreneurs was submitted to the government.
