PUNE, May 20:
The Postal Department here is taking measures to resolve the crisis having arisen after implementation of the Core Banking Service (CBS) in the Department that not only caused hardship and inconvenience to the citizens but also resulted in the loss of revenue as compared to the previous year. The frequent problem of lack of connectivity, poor infrastructure and shortage of manpower were other reasons for the loss of business to the Department, said an agent.
The employees attached to various branches in Postal Department have not been provided proper training after implementation of CBS, because of which citizens are forced to stand in long queues to get their transactions done, said a senior citizen Varsha Kulkarni.
A 55-year-old lady who is serving with Postal Department as an agent for the last 20 years, said due to non-availability of connectivity, the interest earned on the Monthly Income Scheme (MIS), which earlier used to get credited to clients’ saving bank account directly through electronic clearing system (ECS) mode, has also been discontinued from this month by the Postal Department.
Another postal agent said, ”We cannot deposit the money collected from the clients to their respective recurring deposits (RD) account due to the technical problem experienced by the Postal Department’s website since the last week.”
The reporter who visited many branches of the post office here today, found people standing in long queues to get their transactions done.
Several citizens have complained to the higher authorities of the Department requesting to find a permanent solution or give proper training to existing staff.
When contacted, Assistant Post Master General F B Sayyed said, ”The ‘RD’ portal was restored just now and we have started to receive deposits from agents after a gap of over a week.”
When asked about the loss of business after the launch of CBS, he declined to comment but said that this is the initial stage. Mr Sayyed expressed confidence that the Postal Department will get more revenue once the issues pertaining to CBS are resolved. He said, ”New business is coming to us and the Postal Department will become the number one source of revenue of the government in near future.” (PTI)