# SBI: KIDS PENNILESS AFTER MINIMUM BALANCE RULE



## Flash (Sep 15, 2017)

_SBI’s Rs 5000 average balance norm caused 100 students of Chembur school to lose their hard-saved cash, bank officials advise parents to close accounts._

A banking exercise, which was supposed to benefit the students of a municipal school in Chembur, has ended up causing them much distress with most of them losing all the money they had painstakingly saved in their accounts over two years, thanks to SBI’s latest monthly average balance rule.
The SBI, which has made it mandatory for all account-holders to maintain a minimum balance of Rs 5,000 every month, has made deductions as penalty from the accounts of around 100 students of the decades-old Ayodhya Nagar Municipal School.

Two years ago, around 200 students from classes VI to VIII were made to open bank accounts in SBI, Mahul Road branch, by the school so that they learnt the basics of banking and could directly have access to scholarship money.

Bibhishan Shinde, a teacher, who played a pivotal role in the banking drive, even taught the students to deposit as little as Rs 10 every week in their accounts to inculcate the habit of saving in them. Being a public sector bank, SBI was the preferred choice for the school, especially because it didn’t have a monthly minimum balance rule.

When Mumbai Mirror visited the SBI’s Mahul Road branch, a senior bank official said that a lot of customers had come to them with the same complaint. “We have got 3-4 complaints from this school so far. Parents can pay Rs 590 as per rules and close these accounts,” said BN Mishra, branch manager.

Source: Kids penniless after minimum balance rule - Mumbai Mirror -

Poor kids!


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## billubakra (Sep 15, 2017)

When I was working in a private bank, there was a family whose savings and current account deposits were more than 10 crores. Once they were charged some non-maintenance charges. They came and told the manager to close all their accounts. The manager apologized, reversed the charges and later gifted them a champagne bottle worth Rs. 15k.
The other day I was in a bank, some guy wanted to withdraw around 1000 bucks. The madam said that you will be charged Rs. 150+GST since he had reached the withdrawal limit. He said he needs the money, so he has no choice.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 15, 2017)

That family deserved a 15k champagne bottle if this story is true because even at conservative estimates the bank must have made at least 1 crore of profit from that account.

Banks are not charities & if they don't make profits then it is depositors money that loses its value.Anybody who is incapable of maintaining a min balance in their bank accounts should switch to jan dhan or basic savings acct.An interesting news btw:
HDFC Bank beats TCS in intra-day market cap - Times of India


> *At current valuation, HDFC Bank is worth more than all public sector banks put together*...Public sector banks, which account for 70.6% of all bank deposits in the country and 66.2% of total bank credit, have a relatively smaller share of market capitalisation.


Maybe govt will decide to privatise all these public sector banks after accumulating a loss of lakhs of crores 5-10 years later just like it is doing now with Air India after accumulating a loss of almost 50000 crores.


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## Nerevarine (Sep 15, 2017)

With the recent changes in SBI, i dont see any reason why i should still keep the SBI active. Its terrible service, my salary has bounced back twice because of bad service on their part. 
I have an ICICI zero balance account, I have no idea how a private sector bank was able to provide zero balance to me while a govermment one cant ? Anyone know why ?


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## billubakra (Sep 16, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> That family deserved a 15k champagne bottle if this story is true because even at conservative estimates the bank must have made at least 1 crore of profit from that account.
> 
> Banks are not charities & if they don't make profits then it is depositors money that loses its value.Anybody who is incapable of maintaining a min balance in their bank accounts should switch to jan dhan or basic savings acct.An interesting news btw:
> HDFC Bank beats TCS in intra-day market cap - Times of India
> ...



This is not a story bro. Happened in front of me. That family owns like half of my city. They are the first family to own a Lambo in my state lol
I agree with your other points though. Private banks were also told to open Jan Dhan accounts but no one really cared about them as they are a burden to the bank and there was no government pressure. Moreover public sector banks are also reluctant in opening those accounts as they are just financial burden. Yea in the coming decades after wasting time and resources in merging public sector banks, government will have to privatize the banking sector also.


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## sohan_92 (Sep 16, 2017)

Nerevarine said:


> With the recent changes in SBI, i dont see any reason why i should still keep the SBI active. Its terrible service, my salary has bounced back twice because of bad service on their part.
> I have an ICICI zero balance account, I have no idea how a private sector bank was able to provide zero balance to me while a govermment one cant ? Anyone know why ?


Minimum balance maintaing in SBI is only for savings account, not for salary account. And I think most of the private banks do the same.

And regarding SBI customer service, I haven't faced any issues till now as most of the transactions I do are through net banking and mobile banking which are also hassle free.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 16, 2017)

Pvt banks can open zero balance accounts because their regular saving accounts comes with a min required balance of Rs.10000 which subsidizes these loss making zero balance accounts & also they are relatively much less in numbers compared to their profit making savings accounts.However jan dhan accounts have many restrictions & is not suitable for a modern person doing most of the transactions online unless that person is a student.

@Nerevarine if you are having a salary/regular savings account in a bank then you can not open a jan dhan account because these accounts are meant for poor people availing govt benefit schemes & as per terms & conditions a person having a regular savings account is not eligible for jan dhan account.There are other types of zero balance accounts offered by various banks different from jan dhan accounts & these are basically used as a marketing tool to get new customers who would eventually move on to regular accounts after experiencing their services.


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## Nerevarine (Sep 16, 2017)

My original account was from State Bank of Mysore, a savings account. But with the recent merger with SBI, it has given me a a lot of problems. My intern salary was credited onto savings account, and because of this merger the IFSC code was changed 3 times without notifying me.. yes you heard it right, 3 times.

I ended up, making ICICI bank my primary account, surprisingly its a zero balance account as well. (They only provide zero  balance to specific branches, from what the bank managed told me)


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 16, 2017)

ICICI bank has the best debit card facilities,it is the only bank I know whose debit cards were the first to work with paypal/international sites & in all these years have worked consistently with them(even axis & hdfc debit cards had some issues with paypal/international sites for a few months). Upgrade your account to a regular one(with min 10000/month requirement) whenever you start earning regularly.


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## Gauravs90 (Sep 17, 2017)

SBI also drained my 20 Rs  from my once student account. Now I cannot close the account as I cannot visit the Home Branch anymore.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 17, 2017)

Just send them(email id of branch) a scan of the written self-signed application for closure of account from registered email id followed by sending of application by a courier to Branch Manager.


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## Flash (Sep 18, 2017)

Gauravs90 said:


> SBI also drained my 20 Rs  from my once student account. Now I cannot close the account as I cannot visit the Home Branch anymore.





whitestar_999 said:


> Just send them(email id of branch) a scan of the written self-signed application for closure of account from registered email id followed by sending of application by a courier to Branch Manager.


Won't the accounts be closed automatically by Banks, after a certain period?


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## Gauravs90 (Sep 18, 2017)

Flash said:


> Won't the accounts be closed automatically by Banks, after a certain period?


It's been dormant for 2 years now. I login to Internet Banking once in a year to check if everything is fine. I called customer care and they said I have to visit Home Branch to close it.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 18, 2017)

Dormant accounts may be misused sometimes in financial fraud/laundering cases.As these accounts are KYC but not checked by their owners,some corrupt bank official can use such accounts for illegal parking of money for short duration(maybe even a few minutes or hours) before transferring the money to some other account as legit looking transaction.


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## theterminator (Sep 19, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> That family deserved a 15k champagne bottle if this story is true because even at conservative estimates the bank must have made at least 1 crore of profit from that account.
> 
> Banks are not charities & if they don't make profits then it is depositors money that loses its value.Anybody who is incapable of maintaining a min balance in their bank accounts should switch to jan dhan or basic savings acct.An interesting news btw:
> HDFC Bank beats TCS in intra-day market cap - Times of India
> ...



But bank has been paying interest to that crorepatis. It will depend on branch profile like how much business the branch does to actually say for it.

Why psb's need to be privatised? The single reason for PSB's losses are those big corporates for which our govt is a broker. Also psb's suffer losses due to the social responsibility on them like opening of very less or even zero balance accounts. After Modi's Jan Dhan even a zero balance account holder demands all the facilities like ATMs, Cheque book, Passbook which incur costs. 
Privatisation will also kill jobs.


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## theterminator (Sep 19, 2017)

Nerevarine said:


> With the recent changes in SBI, i dont see any reason why i should still keep the SBI active. Its terrible service, my salary has bounced back twice because of bad service on their part.
> I have an ICICI zero balance account, I have no idea how a private sector bank was able to provide zero balance to me while a govermment one cant ? Anyone know why ?



How much did ICICI ask to open account? Was it NIL balance? It may have been a salary account where the bank expects only salary will be credited.


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## Nerevarine (Sep 19, 2017)

theterminator said:


> How much did ICICI ask to open account? Was it NIL balance? It may have been a salary account where the bank expects only salary will be credited.


It is a savings account, initial balance needed to be 25k, after which u can withdraw everything away


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## theterminator (Sep 19, 2017)

Nerevarine said:


> It is a savings account, initial balance needed to be 25k, after which u can withdraw everything away



I had the same account 15 years ago , it was 5k back then.


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## theterminator (Sep 19, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Just send them(email id of branch) a scan of the written self-signed application for closure of account from registered email id followed by sending of application by a courier to Branch Manager.



Some banks have the policy of not treating email as a valid mode of communication. So it may not work.


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## theterminator (Sep 19, 2017)

Flash said:


> Won't the accounts be closed automatically by Banks, after a certain period?



Yes but after 10 years.


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## theterminator (Sep 19, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Dormant accounts may be misused sometimes in financial fraud/laundering cases.As these accounts are KYC but not checked by their owners,some corrupt bank official can use such accounts for illegal parking of money for short duration(maybe even a few minutes or hours) before transferring the money to some other account as legit looking transaction.



Yes its true. There was one case in a nationalised bank where 9crore fraud happened. Generally bankers are taught to treat money as paper & nothing else but you can't tell of anyone's intentions.

Though there are bad people in every field but this should not be a general rule in banking sector. Bankers are one of the most hard working community in this nation. They work under tremendous stress, duress & that only increases everyday.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 20, 2017)

theterminator said:


> But bank has been paying interest to that crorepatis. It will depend on branch profile like how much business the branch does to actually say for it.
> 
> Why psb's need to be privatised? The single reason for PSB's losses are those big corporates for which our govt is a broker. Also psb's suffer losses due to the social responsibility on them like opening of very less or even zero balance accounts. After Modi's Jan Dhan even a zero balance account holder demands all the facilities like ATMs, Cheque book, Passbook which incur costs.
> Privatisation will also kill jobs.


Bank interest rates on savings account is much less than returns provided by investment in equity or debt markets.Even by conservative estimates an amount of 1crore invested in a balanced portfolio of multi cap & debt MFs would easily fetch a return of 15-20% compared to 4% interest rate(now 3.5%) on savings account for a period of few years.

PSB's needs to be privatised exactly for this reason.Why do you think big corporates like Mallaya got loans froms PSBs & not that much from pvt banks.Because if a GM in a PSB rejects a corporate loan he will soon get a call from a central minister telling him to either pass the loan or forget about any career opportunities in future?This is not possible in case of pvt banks.Another reason why ministers & babus preferred Air India despite it making huge losses because they can make a call & delay the boarding of plane if they are running late.*It is a myth that privatisation kills jobs,same like saying "big bad foreign MNCs will conquer India if allowed to invest freely",yeah right(looking at China)!*


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## theterminator (Sep 20, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Bank interest rates on savings account is much less than returns provided by investment in equity or debt markets.Even by conservative estimates an amount of 1crore invested in a balanced portfolio of multi cap & debt MFs would easily fetch a return of 15-20% compared to 4% interest rate(now 3.5%) on savings account for a period of few years.
> 
> PSB's needs to be privatised exactly for this reason.Why do you think big corporates like Mallaya got loans froms PSBs & not that much from pvt banks.Because if a GM in a PSB rejects a corporate loan he will soon get a call from a central minister telling him to either pass the loan or forget about any career opportunities in future?This is not possible in case of pvt banks.Another reason why ministers & babus preferred Air India despite it making huge losses because they can make a call & delay the boarding of plane if they are running late.*It is a myth that privatisation kills jobs,same like saying "big bad foreign MNCs will conquer India if allowed to invest freely",yeah right(looking at China)!*



 privatisation will definitely kill jobs as it will not happen without merging the banks. first they will merger small banks where some employees have to forcefully take vrs. there is a planned strike on 22-9-17 on parliament street against this. just because of political pressure privatisation is not justified. 

And return on mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Savings rate is 3.5% only in sbi. Not all have adopted. Also very rare public maintain balance in savings, they immediately turn to fixed deposits or mutual fund rather than savings. Bank balance sheet suffers since current n savings are low cost deposits.


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## meetdilip (Sep 20, 2017)

Privatisation is Airtel. Selling 1 GB 3G data @ ₹ 200. Even their land line broadband is dead costly. Look at ACT. They too serve big cities like Airtel ( high-density areas ), but offer more data and speed. Govt. sector has many bad parts. But for someone living in a small town or village, even today, BSNL  is the only option for land line and broadband. Even 3G.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 20, 2017)

theterminator said:


> privatisation will definitely kill jobs as it will not happen without merging the banks. first they will merger small banks where some employees have to forcefully take vrs. there is a planned strike on 22-9-17 on parliament street against this. just because of political pressure privatisation is not justified.
> 
> And return on mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Savings rate is 3.5% only in sbi. Not all have adopted. Also very rare public maintain balance in savings, they immediately turn to fixed deposits or mutual fund rather than savings. Bank balance sheet suffers since current n savings are low cost deposits.


Killing "non-productive" jobs is not the same as killing "productive jobs". Nothing in this world comes for free.For every "unproductive job" in Banks/Air India,two "productive" jobs in economy pay the price.

*This is common knowledge in banking sector that whatever SBI decides regarding interest rates,others almost always follow because of SBI size.*
7 top Banks that have cut interest rates on savings bank accounts
Punjab National Bank Follows Peers In Reducing Savings Rate
Bank Of India slashes interest to 3.5% for deposits up to Rs 50 lakh
Andhra Bank cuts interest rate on savings account to 3.5%


> *SBI,BoB,Karnataka Bank,Axis Bank,Indian Bank,Yes Bank,HDFC Bank,PNB,BoI,Andhra Bank* *all offering 3.5% savings interest now*



I don't know on what basis you are saying that people don't put money in savings account.If you regularly read any good financial daily & look for articles regarding financial planning or queries,the only thing almost always common is advice to people to move majority of their savings from bank accounts to investment options.
SBI cuts interest rates for most of its savings accounts deposit customers | Forbes India


> *The total deposits for SBI and its associates were at Rs 25.8 lakh crore, of which savings account deposits accounted for Rs 9.4 lakh crore*, according to data from the bank relating to March 31, 2017.


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## theterminator (Sep 20, 2017)

BoB has cut interest rate from 4 to 3.5 on deposits above 50 lacs. 
Its a wrong perception of the public that nationalised bankers jobs are unproductive. Its the governing policy of the banks which make it unproductive like the example of email posted above. Who in their right minds would not accept email as a valid mode of communication in todays day and age. But No. An employee if wanting to help a customer cannot do so. And it creates a perception on the customer that the employee is behaving like a maharaja. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 20, 2017)

theterminator said:


> BoB has cut interest rate from 4 to 3.5 on deposits above 50 lacs.
> Its a wrong perception of the public that nationalised bankers jobs are unproductive. Its the governing policy of the banks which make it unproductive like the example of email posted above. Who in their right minds would not accept email as a valid mode of communication in todays day and age. But No. An employee if wanting to help a customer cannot do so. And it creates a perception on the customer that the employee is behaving like a maharaja.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


You are somehow thinking in opposite way,maybe you read it wrong in a hurry.
After SBI, Bank of Baroda cuts interest rates on savings accounts - Times of India


> Within days of SBI slashing interest rate on savings bank account, another PSU bank - *Bank of Baroda* - has followed suit, cutting it to *3.5 per cent on deposits of up to Rs. 50 lakh*.



And exactly why banks need privatisation because as long as govt remains in charge the governing policy of banks too will remain unproductive.Air India is a very good example of this.Why are you so averse to working under pvt management in a bank anyway.*Do you prefer working under a "sarkari babu IAS officer or Arts graduate ministers who consider themselves as kings or a Stanford/Harvard MBA background business specialist who knows their stuff?*


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## theterminator (Sep 20, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> You are somehow thinking in opposite way,maybe you read it wrong in a hurry.
> After SBI, Bank of Baroda cuts interest rates on savings accounts - Times of India
> 
> 
> And exactly why banks need privatisation because as long as govt remains in charge the governing policy of banks too will remain unproductive.Air India is a very good example of this.Why are you so averse to working under pvt management in a bank anyway.*Do you prefer working under a "sarkari babu IAS officer or Arts graduate ministers who consider themselves as kings or a Stanford/Harvard MBA background business specialist who knows their stuff?*



Why are you so averse in wanting to make govt officers/employee private? As per your thinking there should be no govt officer anywhere.

Also i prefer working for the people , working under a govt undertaking will definitely make you do that. Working under ias officer is not a bad thing as you are pointing it out. Working under corrupt people is bad. Before you say anything, there are corrupt people in pvt sector also.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 20, 2017)

Because I have actually seen the inner working of so called govt officers/employees.I have known about IAS officers so corrupt that they would make some corrupt politicians to shame.I am not saying every govt officer should be replaced by pvt sector but I do support anyone which can be replaced must be replaced.e.g.you can't outsource police work to pvt security agencies but you can definitely privatise bank & replace IAS officers with Havard/Stanford MBAs in banks management.Yes,there are corrupt people in pvt sector too but their numbers compared to govt sector is nothing.Tell me one big scam which does not involve ministers/bureaucrats & before you give example of Mallaya & Kingfisher do remember that Mallaya got majority of his loans from public sector banks only thanks to his political connections.

*Btw what exactly do you mean by "working for people".*You think working in a public sector bank makes you work for people.At best you are working for ministry of finance & at worst you are working for you BM.*When a bank/company is listed on share market for selling govt shares to reduce its shares to below 50% & its share bought by common people & institutional investors,are they not people of this country or do you mean to say that govt is the only institution with divine right of representing people or only "poor people with jan dhan account" are "real people" in which case this entire argument is pointless because by that standard none of us here can be considered as "real people".*


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## theterminator (Sep 20, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Because I have actually seen the inner working of so called govt officers/employees.I have known about IAS officers so corrupt that they would make some corrupt politicians to shame.I am not saying every govt officer should be replaced by pvt sector but I do support anyone which can be replaced must be replaced.e.g.you can't outsource police work to pvt security agencies but you can definitely privatise bank & replace IAS officers with Havard/Stanford MBAs in banks management.Yes,there are corrupt people in pvt sector too but their numbers compared to govt sector is nothing.Tell me one big scam which does not involve ministers/bureaucrats & before you give example of Mallaya & Kingfisher do remember that Mallaya got majority of his loans from public sector banks only thanks to his political connections.
> 
> *Btw what exactly do you mean by "working for people".*You think working in a public sector bank makes you work for people.At best you are working for ministry of finance & at worst you are working for you BM.*When a bank/company is listed on share market for selling govt shares to reduce its shares to below 50% & its share bought by common people & institutional investors,are they not people of this country or do you mean to say that govt is the only institution with divine right of representing people or only "poor people with jan dhan account" are "real people" in which case this entire argument is pointless because by that standard none of us here can be considered as "real people".*



You are entitled to your opinion which is mere "opinion" only. Pvt sector is so holy that you should work there only. The sector is scam-free .


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## theterminator (Sep 20, 2017)

theterminator said:


> You are entitled to your opinion which is mere "opinion" only. Pvt sector is so holy that you should work there only. The sector is scam-free .



and you think working in a psb is only working for ministry then you know nothing. comment only if you're working inside one.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 20, 2017)

theterminator said:


> You are entitled to your opinion which is mere "opinion" only. Pvt sector is so holy that you should work there only. The sector is scam-free .


Yes,& so is yours who think govt sector is "holier than thou" but then I should have expected it sooner after seeing your posts in the veg vs non-veg thread where you are practically acting as spokesman of govt voicing the opinion that "it is against nature for humans to eat meat".


theterminator said:


> and you think working in a psb is only working for ministry then you know nothing. comment only if you're working inside one.


What made you think that I commented all that without working in govt sector & it may not be a PSB but then it is the same govt that runs psb as well as other psu.*People like you also made a lot of noise before 1991 reforms saying privatisation will destroy India but it still happened.Keep dreaming about "safe govt psb job" for a few more years when govt will be forced to privatise banks just like like it was forced to open up economy in 1991 after having to mortgage its gold reserve to IMF(beggars can't be choosers so IMF told India to open up its economy & it did).*


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## theterminator (Sep 20, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Yes,& so is yours who think govt sector is "holier than thou" but then I should have expected it sooner after seeing your posts in the veg vs non-veg thread where you are practically acting as spokesman of govt voicing the opinion that "it is against nature for humans to eat meat".
> 
> What made you think that I commented all that without working in govt sector & it may not be a PSB but then it is the same govt that runs psb as well as other psu.*People like you also made a lot of noise before 1991 reforms saying privatisation will destroy India but it still happened.Keep dreaming about "safe govt psb job" for a few more years when govt will be forced to privatise banks just like like it was forced to open up economy in 1991 after having to mortgage its gold reserve to IMF(beggars can't be choosers so IMF told India to open up its economy & it did).*



till then , let the people do their work instead of ridiculing their commitment.


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## theterminator (Sep 20, 2017)

I never said govt sector is holier than thou


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 20, 2017)

Let's stop this here & like you said let people do their work so do your work.


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