MP officials seal bank branch for not giving loans to vendors

    Shajapur (MP), Feb 23 (PTI) A branch of the State Bank
of India was sealed in Shajapur of Madhya Pradesh by district
authorities after it reportedly failed to provide loans of Rs
10,000 to applicants under the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Street
Vendor's Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM SVAnidhi) scheme, officials
said on Tuesday.
    The Magaria branch of SBI was sealed on Monday
afternoon for not disbursing loans despite a camp being
organised, and for operating the branch from a residential
property instead of its designated place, a release from the
Shajapur district administration said.
    It added that Additional Collector Manjusha Vikrant
Rai, Deputy Collector Juhi Gupta, Tehsildar Dr Munna Ad as
well as revenue and police officials were present when the
action was taken.
    However, staff of the branch on Tuesday said officials
misbehaved during the sealing operation.
    The staff said they had submitted a memorandum to the
district collector to make him aware of the issue so that
action can be taken against the officials who misbehaved.
    The letter written by the bank staff also claimed that
59 people were given loans under the Central scheme, and
officials were made aware of it on Monday afternoon, but
despite that sealing action was undertaken with police being
called in.
    The letter also claimed the branch employees were
forcibly taken to the collector's office and allowed to leave
after sometime, but the episode had struck fear in their
hearts.
    However, the allegations were denied by the additional
collector who claimed the sealing process was carried out as
per rules and no staff was subjected to any kind of
misbehavior.
    Incidentally, on February 1, garbage was dumped
allegedly by municipal workers outside the branches of four
banks in Begumganj in Raisen district for not disbursing loans
to street vendors. PTI COR MAS
BNM BNM

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)