SHILLONG, Nov 13 - One of the underlying mottos of State Bank of India is: �not delivering is not an option,� but staff of the nationalised bank here needs a standing ovation for not only delivering, but �redefining work culture� in Government enterprises.
Most of the staff of the nationalised banks, especially SBI are working tediously till midnight these days and coming to office much ahead of their scheduled time to facilitate currencies exchange, withdrawal and deposits.
The bank provided service today (Sunday) to a large number of customers and would remain open on Monday despite it being a holiday on account of Guru Nanak�s birthday.
To add to this, some of the SBI branches are providing water, tea, chairs, especially to senior citizens and women wherever it is possible. �The career of a SBI staff thrives on challenges. That�s our traditional...not delivering is not an option,� a senior SBI official, who wished to remain anonymous, said today.
He said, although the staff are trained to face challenges, but the effort that is being put in by them in the past few days has far exceeded all expectations. �It is a revelation how our staff are facing this present challenge with a lot of professionalism and empathy. It is fantastic,� the official said.
In fact, the top official himself was not in the SBI regional administrative office (Meghalaya-Manipur) and was �in the field� throughout the day, assisting people in the queue in different branches of the State Capital. The Regional SBI office oversees 120 branches in Meghalaya and 40 in Manipur.
He stated that the staff have been staying in the bank till midnight, as the back office work like accounting has to be completed.
He also praised the public for being �patient, supportive and understanding� and the State administration for providing the required logistic support. �It has been a team effort,� the official said.
In the SBI branches no customer is turned back, he said. �Our shutters have not been downed till the last customer in the queue gets the service he or she came for,� the official added.
The official said that he expects the transaction in banks to normalise by the end of this week with arrival of Rs 500 currencies and configuration of ATMs in the coming days. Till today, the pressure on exchange of old currency has eased substantially, but there are pressure on withdrawal and deposits.
Meanwhile, the Shillong office of the RBI remained closed. On the other hand, there are reports that some private banks are busy engaged in opening new accounts of high-end clients in the State.
