Rio writes to PC on SBI regional office

EMN DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 22 CHIEF Minister Neiphiu Rio has requested Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, to urgently review shifting back to Dimapur the SBI Regional Office from Jorhat at an early date. In a demi-official letter he had observed that Jorhat is already having SBI Regional Office and “there is no logic in having two SBI Regional Offices in Jorhat which are being named as Jorhat North region and Jorhat South Region.”Also, the whole of Nagaland with about 61 branches and Nagaon areas of Central Assam having 34 branches, are to be looked after by Jorhat South Regional Office. This will cause lots of inconveniences to the branches located in Nagaland and Nagaon areas. So, “it appears that some people with vested are furnishing wrong and one-sided information about the situations in Dimapur, which might have led to this decision to shift the SBI Regional office” recently, the letter said. The Chief Minister further said that he had been “lamenting the absence of important central institutions/offices in Nagaland, which has also resulted in less employment opportunities for our youth.” The CD ratio is also poor, hovering around 35% as against the national average of more than 65%. Hence, SBI being the lead bank, the presence of its regional office in the State is considered necessary to monitor the functioning of all the banks in Nagaland more effectively, the letter added.