"Nearly 1,000 branches, which were opened after 2001, do not have proper infrastructure and adequate manpower. About 200 branches are completely lacking minimum number of officers and operates as mere 'server' branches," All India State Bank Officers' Federation president T N Goel told PTI.
SBI presently has a strength of over 10,000 branches and plans to open an additional 2,000 in the next two years. The bank expects to open about 1,000 branches in rural and semi-urban areas within this fiscal.
The lender had opened it's 10,000th branch in Sivaganga, Tamilnadu in March this year to make it one of the largest bank in Asia in branch network.
Unions said SBI is facing shortage of 15,000 officers presently, while the number of 'server branches' is estimated to be around 200, amongst the newly opened 1,000 branches.
"Such branches do not have adequate number of staff and is being operated by a single server. These branches are inefficient to carry out basic banking activities owing to severe staff-shortage," the federation's general secretary G D Nadaf said.
The employees also flayed SBI's attempt to freeze its tractor loans. "The bank (SBI) should not have made such a step (by asking its branches not to lend to farmers). Nearly 70 per cent of the bank's branches are located in rural areas. SBI is the largest farm-loan financier in the country," Nadaf said.
SBI had issued a circular asking its branches to suspend tractor loans, a segment where the bank had seen sharp increase in defaults following the government's farm loan-waiver announcement.
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