Letter to Chairman on closure of DDM offices and BIRD, Lucknow

The Chairman                                                      30/04/12

NABARD

Head Office

Mumbai 

Dear Sir,

Closure of 14 District Development Manager (DDM) offices and Closure of BIRD , Lucknow

On perusal of the transfer list 2012 in respect of grade A/B/C officers we have observed that in case of 14 DDMs office across the country the bank has not transferred any officer to replace the existing outgoing DDMs as such we presume that these 14 District level offices are being closed down.

In this connection the following is submitted for your kind perusal-

1. That NABARD by the very act of establishing of DDMs offices across the country has not only provided an impetus to Developmental activities at grass root level but has also created a name for itself through these unique offices of ours.

2. Now that bank has taken a decision to post grade 'A' & ‘B’ officers too, in addition to grade ‘C’ officers , as DDMs, the pool of officers available for posting as DDMs has greatly increased, roughly to the tune of 2000+ officers in comparison to roughly 600 officers earlier. Though NBOA, as a matter of principles do not agree with posting of grade ‘A’ & ‘B’ officers to man a district, but now that management has already taken a decision on posting grade ‘A’ & ‘B’ officers as DDMs NABARDs' endeavor to cover all the districts in the country can be achieved now with relative ease, instead its surprising to note that bank has embarked on closure of district offices.

3. A mere glance at the Development Index and also the socio-economic status of these 14 districts will definitely suffice to indicate that agenda of development, especially in rural areas, remains far from achieved (Kolar in Karnataka has 75% of its NSA under rainfed conditions, Baran & Dausa in Rajasthan are one of the least developed district in the state, Jhansi in UP falls under Bundelkhand Region with almost dry land climatic conditions, while Sitapur in UP again is  a backward district if evaluated on development index, Vaishali in Bihar and 24 Parganas in WB has large segments of poors among poor besides being low on development index, Kozhikode and Pathanamthitta in Kerala are having their own problems related to developmental aspects and require more and more developmental initiatives). Not to say that remaining districts which are facing closure are highly developed and they don’t require NABARDs' intervention. In fact, going by the latest NSSO data base and taking Rs.66/= per day as the minimum requirement for a person to etc out a survival, almost 65% of the country’s' population shall fall below poverty line.

4. More importantly we are also not aware of any set parameters followed by the bank while deciding to effect such closure of the District Offices. In fact going by this analogy, we apprehend that at least half of DDMs office may face such closure and who knows tomorrow someone may raise a question on the existence of   ROs manning the comparatively developed states and also on those of ROs which may be in the vicinity of other NABARD RO/HO.

5. By posting officers from all the three grades as DDMs also undermines the very basis of hierarchical system in bank and our apprehension and fears, expressed earlier, that bank intends to put all the officers in grade A, B and C on the same pedestal (though CGM-HRMD has denied it in the past while discussing the issue with AINBOA is also not acceptable to us). It also means that in times to come that already stunted career progression for officers in all grades will be further cut short and it will lead to upheaval and discontent among the officers fraternity.

6. Similarly closure of BIRD at Lucknow by merging it with NBSC, Lucknow is again a step initiated to dent a specialized and specific training, research and consultancy facilities to rural bankers, especially those from cooperative sector and from RRBs. Also in the process it has lead to reduction of number of posts at all the levels and it would further aggravate the career progression opportunities of the officers at all the levels.

7. It appears that such steps being initiated by the bank, are aimed to downsize and greatly truncate the already stressed and strained work force (when we started in 1982 we had almost 3000 officers, while today after 30 years and taking the turnover of NABARD from Rs 10000 crore to Rs 183000 crores, the number of officers has come down to 2600 odd).

In view of the above we request you to reconsider the decision of closure of the DDM offices as also the NBSC, Lucknow and also give us immediate audience to discuss this very important issue which is of paramount importance to NABARD and its future and linked to our livelihood too.

Yours Sincerely,

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(Dr D S Chauhan)

General Secretary