TCN News:
Editor and owner of Urdu magazine Huda and Hindi magazine Taha, Mr Sohail Siddiqui, in his press statement, says Urdu publications are facing difficulties from the last 6 months ever since the software has been updated in the postal department. Both ‘Huda’ and ‘Taha’ are dispatched to distributers and book stalls almost all over India from the last 60 years without any problems. But ever since the post offices became smart, he has not been getting the payment due to his publication house through the VPP sales made. The amount has accumulated to Rs. 1, 20,000/- from the last 6 months.
The postal department has upgraded the software to SAP CSI in order to create smart post offices from May 2018 onwards. But upgrading the systems is not enough even the employees’ skills need to be upgraded in order to operate the systems. Failure in doing so has created problems for both the postal staff and the customers.
“ And since a majority of Urdu publications do not depend on advertisements but solely on our sales through EMO/ VPP (Electronic Money Order/ Value payable parcel)”, Said Mr Siddiqui, the owner and publisher of Huda and Taha magazines, to Twocircles.net, “ we are facing problems for future publications.”
“The situation of small urdu publication houses is even worse,” he added. “The systems seem to work correctly for one hour every three days. We can see that even the staff is frustrated with this kind of working as they have not been trained to handle the new software.”
Mr Siddiqui even filed a RTI to know the reason for the delayed payments. The department acknowledged the receipt of his RTI but no relief has been given yet.
In his conversation and letter to twocircles.net, the publisher wants people to know about the shortcoming of the postal department and demand an early solution for the problem. He feels it is the Minister for communications under whose ministry the postal department falls is ultimately answerable for this lapse.