Mallaiah, a farmer from Veldurthi, has been making several rounds of the bank for the past few weeks for updating his passbook. Despite repeated appeals he was asked by the bankers to come again as they were busy with other pre-occupied work.
Case of another farmer Dandu Bhumaiah from Manoor was not much different. He has an an account with a nationalised bank at the constituency headquarters Narayankhed.
Every month he goes to the bank to draw the pension amount and it takes him more than three to four visits to withdraw the money.
Narayanakhed has three bank branches - two branches of SBI and another branch of Andhra Bank. Large number of farmers and pensioners can be seen in front of the banks on any given day to know the amount in their account and withdraw part of it.
“Despite old age my father has going repeatedly to the bank to know the balance and withdraw the required amount.
The officers say that either the printer was not working or to come again as they were busy due to insufficient staff,” commented Lingam, son of Bhumaiah.
Another farmer Sharma of Ismailkhanpet says that the situation had turned worse after merging of State Bank Group banks.
“Farmers find it difficult to get the things done at the bank. The response from bankers has been not encouraging,” he commented. While admitting that certain lapses from the bankers’ side were creating problems for the customers like farmers and pensioners, a bank officer said that they were helpless as higher authorities were not responding properly to appoint new staff.
“The demand is more than what we can meet and we are helpless,” said the officer.
