Photo Source: Babushahi Network
Resentment prevails among Immigration and Educational consultants after govt imposed fresh COVID restrictions
Mohali, April 28, 2021:
Immigration and Education consultants of Mohali got together under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Immigration and Education Consultants (ALIEC) on Wednesday to highlight the problems arising out of the latest directive of Punjab Govt. on restrictions on the opening of offices and work from home directions.
The owners of immigration firm and IELTS institutes including men and women expressed their anger in a park of Phase 3B1 here.
The ALIEC highlighted that in the prevailing conditions livelihood of each one in every trade is adversely affected. It is brought out that Immigration/Education Consultants/IELTS Centers are not only assisting students of the state in career development and professional growth but are also a significant source of employment / livelihood for many in all cities across the state of Punjab. Not only that we are also making a significant contribution to the state ex-chequer through License Fee/GST/Income Tax/Property Tax etc.
Jatinder Benipal, President of ALIEC said, “It is not possible to operate from home since a significant amount of vital data of students is involved who are in various stages of admission and visa processes. It is not possible to share such important data with staff to make them operate from home. The sole responsibility of the processing of students applications remains with the directors or owners and hence the staff cannot be permitted to operate from home without any supervision/directions.”
Similarly, various IELTS centers have made significant investments in terms of high-speed internet and other audio-visual equipment to conduct online classes in the prevailing conditions. We are already taking all precautions and are refraining from conducting physical classes it is not possible for teaching faculty to conduct the online classes from home due to lack of high-speed Internet and other audio-visual aids. Therefore for conducting online classes teaching faculty is required to visit our office using multimedia and other audiovisual aids, he added.
The association requested the Punjab government to rationally consider their demand since work from home scenario will have adverse impact on their businesses due to which it will be hard to manage the office expenses like rentals, electricity/ maintenance charges and salaries of staff. This may lead to laying off of staff thus generating unemployment and causing hardships/loss of livelihood for many.
All the consultants present during the meeting have assured the government that we as responsible citizens are following all the laid down norms and other health protocols. Many of the Consultants and IELTS centers have gone for vaccination of the majority of the staff and are also refraining from physical activities in offices. They, therefore, requested the Govt. to permit them to operate their offices for various processing of applications/conduct of online classes etc.
After that, the members of ALIEC visited DC Office for submitting a memorandum in this regard.