My first experience of citizenship in the Bank!

I was undergoing my Phase-I Basic training at Sector-1 Branch, Rourkela.

One day a senior citizen approached me to open a savings account in our Branch. I checked the required documents and got it approved by the Manager, Bank Operations for opening the account.

Then I asked him, why he didn’t have an account with the Bank before? He said that he had a saving account with the Bank earlier but he had not operated it for quite a long time. I requested him to show me Pass Book. He handed over to me a very old and faded pass book. There was a four digit account number (Ex-11/1111) mentioned therein. Then I enquired with the messenger of the Branch about the fate of that account.

The messenger gave me a clue that this kind of account number was there before Bank Master days and now it would be difficult to locate it. I requested him to give me the registers in which the records of old accounts were maintained. From one of those registers, I could detect his Bank Master account number, and from that, the CBS account number. I found more than Rs3000/- lying in that account. I changed the status of the account as ‘operative’ and issued him a new passbook.

I could notice the level of satisfaction from his face. He thanked me profusely and remarked ‘You are the Safe Bank of India’. The immense pleasure I got was much more than the efforts I put in that day.

Debabrata Pradhan
Probationary Officer

Courtesy: STATE BANK TIMES / CITIZEN SBI