ITANAGAR, Nov 2: The State Bank of India (SBI) SC ST Employees Welfare Association, Itanagar Region has claimed that various posts in the SBI are being grabbed by SC/ST candidates from other states.
“In 2018-19, only 11 Arunachal Pradesh Scheduled Tribes (APST) candidates had been recruited for 62 vacancies in the state, and the rest of the posts were grabbed by SC/ST candidates from different northeastern as well as other states,” the association stated in a memorandum it submitted to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes Chairperson, Kirit Premjibhai Solanki.
A 13-member delegation of the association, led by its regional president Binju Karlo, met Solanki here on Saturday evening and submitted the memorandum. It said though the Supreme Court has barred the migration of SC/ST candidates from one state to another, recruitment of ST candidates from other states by the SBI has been going on in Arunachal for the last eight years.
Stating that although the SBI has introduced the local language test during recruitment, and that in states like Meghalaya a candidate has to write answers in local languages, it said “there is no such local official language(s) in Arunachal, due to which candidates from other states are making Arunachal a soft target for finding jobs.”
“And those bankers recruited from other states soon get transferred on various grounds, which results in acute shortage of staffs in the branches,” the association said.
It suggested making it compulsory for SC/ST candidates to produce residential certificates while applying for jobs in the SBI in Arunachal, and Class 10 or Class 12 passed certificates from Arunachal in case of general category candidates.
The association later informed that Solanki gave assurance that he would take up the issue with the higher authorities.
It also dwelt on various issues, including the problems faced by SBI customers due to shortage of staff in the bank’s branches.
The association said it had submitted a memorandum to the chief minister in this regard in August, and that the CM had assured to write to the finance minister and the SBI chairman to look into the matter.
