Distribution of salaries and pensions getting delayed due to server issues in treasury

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The distribution of salaries and pensions got delayed even on the third day of the new year with the computer system in the treasury coming to a standstill. Although officials are claiming that the distribution of salaries will take place from Tuesday, there is concern that the transactions will move at a slow pace. If the problem is not completely resolved, repair works will have to be done once again by shutting down the servers from Friday to Monday. Experts at Keltron and the National Informatics Center (NIC) had carried out similar repair works this Saturday and Sunday. However, on Monday morning, officials were not even able to turn the system on. With this, the salary distribution was completely disrupted. Following this, experts from NIC arrived and fixed the problem by 3 pm. However, the operation did not return to normal.

Thousands of pensioners returned disappointed after coming to collect the money. Health workers, who receive direct payments, also returned empty-handed. The salaries of government employees could not be transferred to their accounts.

Five and a half lakh pensioners and four and a half lakh government employees are paid their pensions and salaries on the first ten days of the month.

The issues with the server were discovered in December itself. This is not the first time that a server crash is causing a crisis. The distribution of pensions and salaries had got delayed in March, April and September last year due to server issues. The Director was removed last month in the wake of a lapse in treasury operations. No replacement director has been appointed. The Joint Director is in temporary charge.

The National Informatics Center, a central government agency, is in charge of computers, servers and data linking. Keltron and the treasury IT department provide help. It is alleged that the task of managing the systems, including the server in the treasury, was handed over to the unskilled.

Incompetent server and software

• About Rs 6700 crore is being transferred for salaries and pensions alone. Of this, Rs 1600 crore is disbursed on the first day.
• According to one section, the server cannot handle so many transactions simultaneously. The solution is to increase the server capacity and bandwidth. The section is arguing there is no issue with the software.
• The IT department of the Treasury argues that the issue is with software. They are not ready to buy or increase the capacity of the server.