Banks in Manipur making the people of Manipur a joke

Aryan Meitei *

The nationalised and private sector banks in Manipur have been making fun of the people of Manipur. This is evident from the kind of service they are providing for the people of Manipur.

Starting from the long queues to the unsystematic procedures inside the bank to the never ending queues in ATM; it has been a pathetic service that they have been providing for the people.

But it will be interesting for everyone to learn that the Banks operating in Manipur provide some special services only for Manipur and its people but not for any other state in India.

Those services are listed below:

1. Special service to make sure that everyone takes at least three hours to withdraw money from the ATMs. It may be worth mentioning that it is YOUR MONEY that you are withdrawing ATM.

2. Special service to ensure that Most of the ATMS either don't have money or are out of Service

3. Special service to close the ATM counter at 7 pm and open at 7 am. Remember this is only for the State of Manipur.

4. Some banks provide ATM cum Debit Cards proudly to its customers but don't have even a single ATM kiosk across the State. Punjab and Sindh Bank, ICICI bank are some of such Banks.

5. Everyone will get their services done in a short time if you have someone working in the bank. You can jump the queue because the employee whom you know will be guiding you on how to do it. If it is a Token based you don't even have to take a token.

6. You can get special service in no time if you are a VIP or a relative of a VIP or a relative of the person working in the bank. Best example will be The State Bank Of India, Secretariat Branch, Imphal, counter # 1 which has a special Counter for VIPS . A gentleman will cater to your banking needs if you fall under the category.

7. Special service by having multiple counters in the banks of which some will remain unattended most of the time.People will have to spend at least three hours just to deposit to depositor some money into your account

8. Special service to ensure that they make customers feel as if they are there in the bank to beg or they are there to borrow money from the employees of the bank. One personal experience that is worth mentioning:it happened inthe SBI, Secretariat Branch, Imphal. There I saw the security personal taking care of the token generating machine.

It is up to his discretion to when to switch on the machine. He does it once in an hour . So if you are there in the bank by 5 minutes past 1 o clock you have to wait for another 55 minutes to get your token i.e. till 2 o clock .

And as per the security man he was doing it on the instructions from the Manager of the bank. The general behaviour of the employees of public sector banks in Manipur is very rude and arrogant. One fails to understand why they are such. I am emphasising on the words 'In Manipur' because if you observe such behaviour is almost non-existent in the employees of public sector banks in other states.

The reason behind such an attitude is probably they did not get proper training before they hit the floor. Or maybe they have forgotten that they are' Public servants'. They get their salary from the tax that we pay every year. For this simple reason are we not supposed to get a better service from these bank employees?

It is high time for the people of Manipur to start observing and understand things to act against such non acceptable services being provided by the banks operating in Manipur.

Few simple questions that we often ask ourselves:

1. Why should we waste an entire day braving the sun, rain and sometimes even humiliation to withdraw my money from an ATM kiosk?

2. Why should we have long queues inside the bank when we can have token system in place?

3. Why should we bear the same old excuse 'Network Down'? If the network is down the bank's IT department should restore it.And the bank should let the customers know the Expected Resolution Time.

4. Why should there be discrimination in the bank inside by having special counters for VIPS? Will the CM of Manipur come to a bank to deposit money? However the special counters for the senior citizens are most welcome by the people.

5. Why should somebody be allowed to jump the queue just because he is a relative or an acquaintance of an employee of the bank?

6. Why can't we have the ATM kiosks open 24/7?

7. Do we deserve the rude and humiliating behaviour from the employees of the bank?

8. What are the concerned authorities doing to address these grievances?

Do we have answers to these Questions? If we don't have what should we do to get the answers.

God bless Manipur