BOUDH: It’s the location of the Janhapank branch of SBI which has been bothering its customers. Instead of locating the branch along the NH-57, connecting Boudh with Sonepur, it is housed in a building in Laxmiprasad village, about 1.5 km from the NH making banking inaccessible to the people.Located at the dead end of the village beyond which the Mahanadi flows, the bank is highly vulnerable to thefts. Robbers had struck at the bank in 2003-04 and decamped with gold ornaments worth Rs 30 lakh.To make things worse, the bank does not have a washroom, drinking water facility, ATM, security personnel, seating facilities for customers and parking area. This despite the fact that nearly 100 pensioners and pregnant women, who have opened accounts under Mamata Scheme of the State Government, are regular visitors to the bank.The bank has about 8,000 regular customers and had advanced farm loans to 2,400 farmers. The panchayats of Bahira, Padmanpur, Telibandh, Talsarda, Laxmiprasad and Khuntbandh depend on the bank and the customers themselves feel that shifting the bank to near the NH would have helped them.Locals said at least an ATM of the bank would help the customers. One Suresh Dalal said he had offered to construct a building to suit the needs of the bank along the highway but the bank did not evince any interest.Deputy General Manager Veer Brahma Rao promised to visit the bank shortly and set things right.
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