SBIOANEC

The North Eastern Region was a part of the erstwhile Bengal Circle and all the officers working in the region were members of Bengal Circle Association. The first ever officers' organization in State Bank of India took birth in the name of State Bank of India Sub-Accountants' Association (Bengal Circle) which was registered in 1962. Before that the promotee officers were members of the SBI Staff Association. Gradually, some of the other Circle Associations also started taking shape. But the activities took off in full swing in all the Circle Associations only after the formation of All India State Bank Supervising Staff Federation in the year 1965. The Circle Associations became affiliates of the Federation. The State Bank of India Sub-Accountants' Association (Bengal Circle) was also renamed as State Bank of India Supervising Staff Association (Bengal Circle) in 1966 and registered in 1967. As for North East we don't have any records of the past and as such it is very difficult to narrate the formative years of the Association in North East. We are trying to contact the persons who were directly involved in the activity during that period. But unfortunately, some of them left the place after retirement, some are here but physically not pulling well and one or two persons died in the meantime. As such it is also difficult to collect information in this regard. As per available information, during this period, the local generation of officers in our region was very negligible; officers from other parts of the country had to come to N.E. for manning the branches. Some of them, as told to us, who pursued Association activities elsewhere in the country, were being sent here by the management as a punitive measure for working for the Organization. After reporting here these officers again started taking initiative in organizing the officers under the banner of SBI Supervising Staff Association (Bengal Circle) in North Eastern Region. Already the tradition of democratic movement was there in Assam and parts of Meghalaya and it did not take much time to organize the officers. The first ever Regional Office of State Bank of India was opened at Shillong in 1965. The officers' organization also informally started functioning since then. The Regional Committee of SBISSA(Bengal Circle) for N.E. states formally took birth at Shillong in April 1968.Members like Mr.Parag Bhattacharjee, Mr. MRA Laskar, Mr. B.Pradhan, Mr.K.P.Baruah took the lead role. As per available records again, in 1969, many officers in this part of the country also participated in the historic indefinite strike. Sarvashri MRA Laskar, B.Pradhan, H.R.Dutta who later on became the Regional Secretary led the officers in that historic indefinite strike which lasted for only 13 days in this part of the country w.e.f. 14th June to 26th June 1969. The Bank management initiated a court case and arrest warrant was also issued against some of the officers. It is during mid 70's the Regional Committee started another significant struggle for the establishment of the circle for the N.E.region. After a long drawn struggle and with the help of some of the political leaders of the region, the Govt. at the centre and the Corporate Centre of the Bank could be convinced to open a Local Head Office for the economic development of the region at Guwahati. Thus, on the 29th April 1981, the 14th Local Head Office of State Bank of India was opened at Guwahati. Accordingly, SBI officers' Association (N.E.Circle) also came into existence on the 1st May 1981 with its headquarters at Guwahati. Our periodical journal of the Association "Unity" was also first published on the day of the inauguration of Circle Association. Another important milestone, the Regional Committee could achieve was package of incentives for difficult and inconvenient centre which was first of its kind in the whole of the country.