Indian Tribal News Service
New Delhi
A parliamentary panel has expressed its “displeasure” over the fact that there is no SC/ST member in the Board of Directors of India’s oldest commercial bank, the State Bank of India. The panel, which tabled its report in the Lok Sabha on Monday, said their representation must be provided in order to adequately safeguard their interests.
It said the matter may be taken up at a higher level to frame proper guidelines for due representation of eligible SC and ST members on the Board of Directors. “For the purpose, the committee also recommends for concession/relaxation, if any required, for the purpose,” the panel maintained.
The committee also said it is “dismayed” to note that the State Bank of India, being the biggest nationalized bank in India, has no separate schemes for SCs/STs which constitute one-third of the country’s population.
It pointed out that the annexures provided by SBI indicate that the percentage of share of SCs/STs in various schemes under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) is very dismal. The share of SCs/STs ranges from 2 to 5 per cent and so on of the overall disbursal of loans under various schemes, it said.
“It is really a sorry state of affairs, whereby, the most vulnerable sections of the society get the smallest share of development as compared to their population and requirements. The committee, therefore, strongly recommended that the SBI should significantly improve its performance in lending to SCs and STs under all such public sector schemes so that a large volume of vulnerable parts of the society can be empowered financially and can contribute to GDP in India,” the panel stressed.
The committee was, however, happy to note that out of a total strength of 2,43,330 employees in SBI, the percentage of SCs is 18.27 and of STs is 7.98 which is in conformity with DoPT guidelines for reservation.
