Bank employees fear Covid exposure
Harshabab Sidhu
Mohali, April 6
‘Customer can be a covid patient’
- According to an employee of a Chandigarh-based bank during the lockdown period, we witness a few customers in the branch. Many customers visit the branch just for cash withdrawal. The banks have become their coffee houses during the period of curfew. The bank employees will continue to serve the customers to the best of their abilities. Its not that we are not vulnerable to the disease, but we seem to be way apart from getting infected.
Many times we don’t have any details of the person walking in the branch. Our duty is such that we can neither investigate nor restrain from providing services to customers, who might be infected with the Covid-19. The bank staff are really worried.
Advertisement
A large number of panic-stricken people are approaching banks for cash instead of opting for digital payment, triggering fear of Covid-19 exposure among the bank staff.
Bank officials said they were highly prone to the virus as they were not aware about the health of customers visiting the banks. Also, the currency notes and documents they dealt with were easy carrier of communicable disease.
An employee of IndusInd Bank, Mohali, said due to the present situation, their health was in danger as they had no idea from where the customers were arriving in the bank.
An employee of HDFC Bank, Saneta village branch, said their families were worried as they spend maximum hours in banks these days. “All my family members are home-quarantined. I am the only member who is going out for work every day,” he said and demanded that the government should provide medical insurance cover to bank employees like it had done for the health workers.
Some bank employees said they were wearing masks, gloves and were also using sanitiser, but still these were not enough to make them 100 per cent safe. They said, “Money changes hands very frequently and can transmit the virus very easily.”
A Yes Bank employee said, “Every day, a number of customers, especially senior citizens, visit our branch. They give us excuses that they visit bank as they have no work to do at home.”
A senior employee of rural SBI branch in the district said the chances of Covid spreading were higher in rural branches due to their congested size and more customers. He said villagers visited bank even for small work and they hardly maintained social distancing. “Business correspondents are at high risk as they have to visit villages during duty,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan said it was up to the Reserve Bank of India to issue instructions to them. “We have already asked the residents to visit bank on foot only if there is something urgent,” the Deputy Commissioner said.
He said residents should follow social distancing guidelines and avoid crowding, failing which there should be a penal action. Branch managers can report any violation to the local police station.
Mohali SDM Jagdeep Saigal said, “Bank managers have been sensitised to take necessary precautions.”
