Staff crunch: RBI cancels sports meet

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Facing criticism over its decision to organize the 34th annual RBI winter sports meet at Chandigarh from December 3 to 9 at a time when the banking sector was struggling to cope with the demonetisation distress, the

RBI central office

has cancelled the event.

“The games have been cancelled,” said

Alpana Killawala

, chief general manager, department of Communication, RBI, in an email communication to TOI. The decision to call off the meet comes after TOI reported about the possible impact of the absence of several employees at the RBI’s regional offices at such a crucial time. RBI’s regional office in Kerala was planning to send a 64-member delegation for the meet.

The RBI had strictly banned its employees from taking leaves till December 15th but the permission to attend the meet was given under special consideration. The plan was to divert man power from other departments to fill in the staff shortage. Such a move would have resulted in additional work pressure on the already stressed staff. As per the data released by the

All India Bank Officers Confederation

, work pressure after the demonetisation move has already claimed the lives of 11 bank officials across the country following which a demand was raised seeking the resignation of RBI governor Urjit Patel.

The team strength from all 27 RBI regions ranged between 40- 60 each, which would include Class IV workers to senior managers.

Already, the note shredding unit of RBI, Kerala has been working extra shift owing to the space crunch caused by the large number of scrapped notes received from the banks. After the new shift was put in place from Monday, the unit has been working round the clock and will continue to do so until further orders.

Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss yearly career horoscopes 2025 for Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.