SHILLONG: Functioning of post offices was affected across the State on Wednesday due to the one day strike called by postal employees.
Postal employees held a one day pen down/ tool down strike and a mass demonstration demanding that training be imparted to the staff of the postal offices while dealing with the CBS and CIS (Core Banking Solution and Core Insurance Solution).
Speaking to reporters, Rogers Warlarpih, Divisional Secretary, All India Postal Employees Union, Meghalaya Division, Shillong, and Simon Peter Dohling, Divisional President, said though the employees are not against modernization of the postal service, the roll out of CBS system in December last year has caused undue hardship to the employees and the customers at large.
Warlarpih said that with the increase in the number of post offices with CBS, there is slow accessibility of Finacle (a core backing software), throughout the country.
“The snail’s pace of the Finacle has badly affected public services during peak hours,” Warlarpih said.
Moreover he pointed out that that the agreement signed with M/s Sify for network integration is limiting to low bandwidth such as 128 kbps to 256 kbps in single and double handed offices, and this results in hang over and the transactions are incomplete as it requires at least 1 to 4 mbps while Sify has refused to increased the bandwidth.
Despite the fact that the problems being faced by the employees were brought to the notice of the Secretary, Department of posts, there has been no action to upgrade the bandwidth to the existing needy offices while the introduction of CBS in new offices has further intensified the problems.
