New Delhi: A parliamentary standing committee has expressed its displeasure that there is no Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) member in the board of directors of the State Bank of India (SBI). The panel noted that their representation must be provided in order to adequately safeguard their interests. The parliamentary standing committee report was tabled Monday in the Lok Sabha.
The committee which looked into the welfare of SC and ST recommended that 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 SBI board of directors.
“For the purpose, the committee also recommends for concession/relaxation, if any required, for the purpose,” the parliamentary panel said. “The committee expresses its displeasure over the fact that at present there is no SC/ST director in the board of directors of the SBI. The committee desperately feels that SC and ST representation in the board of directors must be provided in order to adequately safeguard the interests of SC/ST employees in the SBI,” the panel added.
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.
“The annexure provided by the bank indicates 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,” the parliamentary panel noted.
“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 further said.
The committee observes that the SBI is the oldest commercial bank in the Indian sub-continent. Out of a total strength of 2,43,330 employees, the percentage of SCs is 18.27 and of STs is 7.98.
“The committee is happy to note that the percentage of SC/ST employees in the bank is in conformity with DoPT guidelines for reservation. The committee, while analyzing the recruitment details given by the SBI, appreciates the fact that since the year 2016-17 till 2020, the bank has been able to fill all backlog vacancies which had been carried forward through the years. However, at the same time, the committee is concerned to note that there are still 44 SC and 37 ST vacancies in different grades which remain to be filled,” the parliamentary panel noted.
The committee said it recommends that these vacancies also should be filled at the earliest by the bank since the clerical or PO grades act as feeder grades for promotion to top managerial posts.