SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Rural bank has issued a clarification regarding the 2017-2018 appointment process.
In a statement issued on Monday, M Kharbithai, Senior Manager of the Human Resource Department, Meghalaya Rural Bank said the selection process for all 56 RRBs in the country is done through a common platform.
He informed that the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) takes care of the written examination and interview and then final result is communicated to the RRBs.
“The IBPS takes care of the rules of the central reservation policy, classification, matrix of selection and as such, the bank is under obligation to give appointment to the ‘provisionally selected candidates’ after completing the required formalities,” said Kharbithai.
Kharbithai informed that after the IBPS (2017-2018) results were declared, the Meghalaya Rural Bank started the appointment process for 27 officers and 20 assistants in March. However, the process was put on hold as many of the candidates did not speak nor understand the local language. He added that the Government of Meghalaya has also stated that it is not possible for a person to learn the local language within a pan of six months or even a year.
Kharbithai emphasised on the fact that as per service rules, RRB appointment examinations are open to all citizens of India and provisionally selected candidates who have cleared their class VIII examination in a particular state will be deemed to having knowledge of the state language whereas others will be given 6 months to learn the language, failing which the candidates can be removed from the bank’s service.
He also said that the bank received instructions from the State Bank of India and NABARD to proceed in the matter according to the rules. He added that failure to give appointment to provisionally selected candidates would open the bank for litigation and slow down customer service in remote corners of the state.
“During August and September 2017, the bank provided training to candidates of Meghalaya for IBPS examination. Training was imparted to 671 candidates appearing for officers’ post and 869 candidates appearing for assistants’ posts,” he said.