The bank officials in Guwahati are worried over the possible spread of Covid19 infection due to a huge rush of people including children and aged ones in banks for opening of new accounts.
Fear-psychosis of the possible spread of Covid19 has gripped bank officials as most of the people are failing to follow Covid protocols like maintaining social distance and wearing of masks.
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Talking to this correspondent on condition of anonymity, a State Bank of India (SBI) official in Guwahati said: “A large number of people are coming to our branch for opening new accounts and most of them are not following Covid protocols.”
Also read: Assam reports 222 new Covid19 positive cases, no death
The official said apart from opening new accounts many other customers come to their bank for various other purposes like the closing of accounts, submission of KYC forms and change in address.
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“People queue up from 10 in the morning till 4 in the evening,” said the official.
In the same vein, another bank official expressed similar concern over the situation.
The official said the government should not have mandated the opening of bank accounts of students without issuing proper guidelines at a time when the Covid19 pandemic continues to hit the state.
On Tuesday (December 1, 2020), Assam registered a total of 222 new Covid19 positive cases including 85 in the Kamrup Metro district.
The education department of Assam recently issued a directive asking students from Class I-XI of both government and private schools, to open bank accounts.
The SBI official said the number of people, who stand in queue sometimes, double the actual number of customers as the parents come to the bank along with their children to open accounts.
“Not only bank officials, the school children and aged people, who come to the banks for different purposes, are at risk of being infected if they come across any asymptomatic Covid19 case,” the official added.
A bank customer said, “I am in the queue to get my bank account closed for the last 2 hours. It has now become not only risky but also tiresome to get works done on time.”