SEPPA, Jun 15: The East Kameng Social Welfare & Cultural Organisation (EKSWCO) has urged the authorities of the State Bank of India (SBI) to take prompt initiative to improve customer service at its Seppa branch by providing it with the required staff strength and new ATMs and cash deposit machines (CDM), and improving the network connectivity at the branch.
“The SBI Seppa is the oldest bank in the town which caters to the needs of over 39,000 customers. However, in recent times, the service of the bank branch has gone from bad to worse due to certain factors,” the EKSWCO said in a letter to the SBI’s Guwahati-based NE circle general manager-I.
It said some of the problems being faced by the customers of the bank’s Seppa branch are unusual rush, short time-window for bank transactions, lack of cash in the ATMs, defunct CDMs, and “collapse of government transactions and public welfare schemes like student stipends, MGNREGA, NSAP, Ujwala Yojna, Jan Dhan Yojna, and other subsidy-based loan schemes, due to inaccessibility to the bank by government agencies for regular transactions, because of extreme rush.”
Stating that the bank branch has fallen short of staff after two of its staffers resigned, the organisation urged the GM to post at least two staffers to the bank at the earliest to ease the workload and ensure its smooth operation.
“Another agonizing problem being faced by the bank branch is poor network connectivity. The VSATs installed for two ATMs and two CDMs have gone out of order, making the pass book updating machine and the swayam machine defunct,” the letter said.
It urged the GM to replace the existing VSATs with more effective ones, and to install new VSATs for the ATMs, the CDMs and the pass book updating machine.
The organisation also urged the SBI to open new branches at the main market here and in Chayang Tajo and Bameng towns. It said the SBI branch in Chayang Tajo “is still pending despite completion of an RCC building constructed at the request of the SBI.”
At present, there are only two bank branches in the entire district – one in Seppa and the other in Seijosa.
The EKSWCO urged the GM to initiate construction of a permanent SBI building in Seppa town, and said the district administration is ready to allot the required plot for the purpose.
