- Sat, 31 Jul, 2010, 2:10 am -

Ranchi: The Bank of India (BOI) was forced to pull the shutters on one of its rural branch in the Ranchi Zone. The Birda branch in the Khunti district is situated in the interior.The bank hhas more than 10000 accounts covering nearly 20 villages surrounding the area.The noteworthy part is there are hundreds of accounts of the old age people drawing their pension from the branch.

The demands for ‘illegal’ loans were pouring in regularly and the staff and the branch manager pressurized to sanction them. The entire staff was in a state of fear and panic as they were sensing the lurking danger on their lives. Most of them started abstaining from work and ultimately the Zonal office decided to pull down the shutters as precautionary security measure. The entire area is naxal infested.

The operations of the closed branch were shifted to the Karra branch, approximately ten kilometers away. The Karra branch was performing the twin operations of both the branches with account holders of the Birda branch trudging all of ten kilometers for transaction.On an average the people of Birda have to spend around Rs.40 per trip to Karra and the old age pensioners have to come at least thrice to collect their Rs.400 monthly pension. Even the business account holders of the Birda branch complain that they face huge risk in carrying cash to and fro to Karra. The account holders have written to the DC of the area too but no action or response has been taken so far.

The villagers of Birda have a different story to tell. According to Birda branch account holders Nand Bihari sharma, ChetanMunda and Nityanand the Birda branch cashier Soma Majhi had the habit of demanding commission from the old age pensioners and other beneficiaries. Some people strongly protested that and on the day prior to closure four persons gave a sound thrashing to the cashier. Thereafter the cashier and staff concocted the story of naxal pressure and closed the shutters. The people say that the Birda branch is functional since 1985 and till date no untoward incident had occurred. Then how come suddenly the naxal threat, they quizzed.

Ironically, on Monday the Bank of India’s Executive Director (ED) addressed the media on the bank’s ambitious rural development project. On Sunday the ED had even visited the rural areas of Gumla for initiating the rural development program. The ED however made no mention of the Birda branch closure even after being quizzed by scribes on the safety aspect in the naxal infested areas.

The writer of this article spoke to the Zonal Manager M. Krishnamoorthy on the matter. He denied any malpractice on part of the bank staff and even vouched for their integrity. The ZM added that it was untrue that the branch was closed down,rather it was only temporarily shut down for security reasons and an FIR to the effect has been lodged at the Birda police station. The bank has demanded additional security and as and when the same is provided the branch will reopen.

- P. Vijay Raghavan