The Congress in Assam has complained against officials of the State Bank of India (SBI) for denying two underprivileged girls money due to them as scholarship amount even 18 months after the maturity of the fixed deposits.
Rimpy Thapa and Purnima Thapa of Nazira in eastern Assam’s Sivasagar district had received a scholarship of ₹5,000 each from then Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in 2012 for excellence in school. The amount was placed as a term deposit in the SBI’s Dispur Branch where former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also an account holder.
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The two beneficiaries were to have received ₹7,806 each as maturity amount on December 8, 2018. However, bank officials allegedly did not respond to their applications for withdrawal or to several follow-up questions.
Drawing attention to the “completely unprofessional and unjust” conduct of officials of the bank, Congress MLA Debabrata Saikia on Monday sought the intervention of Thotngam Jamang, RBI’s Banking Ombudsman in Guwahati.
Mr. Saikia, who represents the Nazira Assembly constituency, is also the Leader of the Opposition in the 126-member House.
“I, too, requested the Branch Manager in question to release the scholarship amount to the beneficiaries on October 31, 2019. I had further enquired whether there was any impediment in releasing the funds, but the Branch Manager did not have the courtesy to respond,” he said in the complaint.
Pointing out that the SBI branch did not release the scholarship amount for over a year-and-a-half without assigning any justifiable reason, Mr Saikia sought the RBI’s intervention and disciplinary action against the errant bank officials.
