Hyderabad: All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) on Tuesday appealed to the Indian Banks’ Asssociation (IBA) Chief Executive Sunil Mehta to take up with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to permit for appointment of candidates, selected by Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), for employment in Banks, as Customer Service Associates (CSA).
‘You will appreciate that the process of recruitment was commenced by IBPS many months earlier to announcement of the process of General Elections by the Election Commission and hence may not be covered by the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) provisions as the process did not commence after the announcement of General Elections’, AIBEA said.
In a letter to Mehta, a copy of which was marked to Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, New Delhi and Chief Election Commissioner, Office of the Election Commission, New Delhi, AIBEA General Secretary Ch Venkatchalam said You are aware that Banks have placed their Indents with the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection for recruitment of about 20,000 Clerks/Customer Service Associates for the year 2024-25.
He said after inviting applications from the eligible aspirants and unemployed youth and completing the process by conducting the examination, the IBPS has announced the list of successful candidates for being appointed in the various Banks.
We have come across a communication from the office of the Election Commission on March 28 addressed to the Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India stating that permission is accorded to the Banks to undertake any exercise of promotions and transfers of officers but there cannot be any fresh recruitments or appointments in the Banks till the completion of election process.
The AIBEA General Secretary said these thousands of young unemployed youth have been aspiring for jobs and after a thorough process they have been selected for employment in the Banks in the routine cadre of clerks/Customer Service Associates.
The Government or any agency connected with the Government are not connected with this routine process and hence there is no scope for any interference or influence in the appointment of these candidates who have been anxiously awaiting for employment in the Banks.
Further, you will appreciate that already there is acute shortage of staff in the Banks in the clerical cadre and adding fuel to fire, the Banks have also released the promotion of clerical staff to Scale I officers cadre which would further deplete the staff in the Branches.
To add further, in addition to the above depletion of staff in the Branches, most of the remaining staff in the Branches are being drafted election work thus the customer services would be badly affected, besides undue stress on the staff.
Hence delaying the process of employment of the selected candidates and delaying the filling up of clerical vacancies in the Banks would only aggravate the problem and hence would be unjustified.
‘We shall thank you to take up the matter on a priority basis with the Election Commission for permitting the Banks to complete the process by issuing appointment orders to these selected candidates and send an Advisory to the Banks to expedite the appointment of the selected candidates,’ Venkatachalam said
