Rural Bank employees to take part ‘dharna’

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 21 (MExN): Along with their counterparts in the rest of the country, Nagaland Rural Bank employees will join the massive ‘dharna’ called by the All India Regional Rural Bank Employees Association (AIRRBEA) on December 8 in front of the Parliament, New Delhi.
General secretary of AIRRBEA, Dilip Kumar Mukherjee, who is here in Dimapur said that the demonstration has been called based two issues.
Interacting with media persons at Hotel Saramati on Saturday, the general secretary was accompanied by Babul Borah, general secretary of North Eastern Region Rural Bank Employees Federation. The president and general secretary of Nagaland Rural Bank Officer’s Association, Kedo and Ranjeet Lama were also present.
Further expansion of branches in the “unbanked” areas across the country and autonomy from “sponsor banks” were the two main demands of the association. These demands are being made for better customer services, said general secretary, Mukherjee.
Putting forth their demand, the AIRRBEA protested the new policy of the RBI allowing any bank (excluding RRB) to open their branches “at any town even at the same place where the RRB branch is located in the name of financial inclusion”.
Mukherjee said that compared with other commercial banks the Regional Rural Banks lack in manpower despite being the biggest bank in the country in terms of branches opened. The general secretary further brought to the fore that there is little scope of promotion of its employees. This he held has hampered its performance and growth.
As such the association demands the reviewing of the present manpower policy, “adequate and need based manpower through recruitment and regular promotion from all cadres to ensure branch expansion, financial inclusion, NREGA etc”.
On the demand for “de-linking” from support banks the general secretary held that the RRBs must be given full autonomy to face the ongoing new challenges. He said that after more than three decades of its formation the RRBs have enough experience and maturity to function on its own. He held that the National Rural Bank of India, proposed to be the apex body of the RRBs can take care of the entire gamut of micro finance and government sponsored schemes for the rural masses.
Another demand of the association was the award of pension benefits on its retiring employees at par with the other banks. Their pay-scale is the same as the commercial banks however he held that the pension benefits are far from expected.