In stark irony, while PM Narendra Modi continues to harp on the Digital India initiative, the government’s Employee Provident Fund (EPF) website (unified portal) has been down for several months.
According to the official Twitter handle, the unified portal of the Employee Provident Fund has been out of service since February 8.
Sorry for your inconvenience the technical team is working on the operational issues of unified portal.service shall be available shortly.
— EPF INDIA (@socialepfo) February 8, 2017
However, though the government has provided another link, only users who have registered on the member portal can transfer money. Some have been complaining that they have not been able to transfer money using their new portal.
There are several posts on social media which claim that the site has been down since August 2016.
According to some users, the UAN (Universal Account Number) website for the same purpose has been non-operational for at least three months too.
With the website down, employees have to go through a tedious process to withdraw their EPF money.
“I have to update my bank details, AADHAAR card details and PAN card details on this website in order to claim by EPF. Since the website is not working, I'm not able to do the same,” said a Bengaluru-based recent graduate who is looking for a career change.
“Now, with the website not working, an officer from the EPF office told me I have to wait for my previous employer to approve my claims and only then I can claim the money offline,” he added.
“With the process being time consuming, I have to borrow money from others as I can’t access my hard-earned money,” he concluded.
Officials of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) could not be reached for comment despite multiple attempts.