Many government employees went without monthly salary due ahead of the Eid which was observed on Wednesday as the recently introduced electronic mode of disbursement developed glitches.
The new electronic method of payments known as “JKPaySys”failed to send salaries into the accounts of many employees on the scheduledtime, forcing them to spend the religious festival in anxiety.
“If at all the system is in a pilot phase, the governmentshould not have tested it around Eid time. It was really frustrating not toreceive the salary on Eid day,” said Zahid Ahmad, a government employee.
Many employees told Greater Kashmir that they tried tocontact authorities in the Finance department but were told that the delay inrelease of their salaries was due to “server problems”.
While as employees have welcomed the transition of salarypayment to the new digital system, most of them say its trial could have takenplace on one or two departments instead of all government employees.
“The glitches in the system had a cascading impact ongovernment salaries on the occasion of Eid when one requires money,” saidShabnum Fayaz, president Employees Joint Action Committee.
“We are in favour of the system if it works fine but willkeep a check if loopholes exist.”
Director General accounts and treasuries, Muhammad YusufPandit told Greater Kashmir that it was for the first time that salaries werebeing disbursed through the digital system using 16-digit bank account numbersinstead of name of the employees.
He said that 600 account numbers registered in the CentralPersonalised Information System (CPIS) were incorrect, causing hurdles insmooth disbursement of salaries.
“We had all the details captured under CPIS which includesname and bank account number of the employee. At the last moment it wasrealised that the account numbers for many were incorrect so the salaries hadto be transferred manually through cheque system,” Pandit said, adding thesystem was in a transition mode from “manual to digital”.