State Bank of India(SBI) has a long association with Nagaland when the first SBI branch was opened in 1962 at Dimapur and later the second branch in Kohima just as Nagaland became a state in 1963.
SBI as the only major bank then, handled all government finances and transactions for all state and central government employees. After nationalisation in 1969 several other banks also opened their branches to cater to the needs of growing trade and commerce.
SBI was given responsibility as Lead Bank to ensure uniform development of all districts through Lead Bank Schemes. This led to fast growth when SBI established around 40 branches by late 80s.
In view of the developmental role and to effectively manage the growing number of SBI branches, the Local Regional Office at Shillong was shifted to Dimapur in 1987.
It was then upgraded to Zonal office status in 1989 which was announced by then minister of state for finance Eduardo Faleiro. The upgraded office was placed under a Deputy General Manager(DGM).
However, politics added another twist as the powerful bank association lobby in Assam succeeded in having the DGM at Jorhat South take over Dimapur SBI Module and downgrading SBI Zonal at Dimapur to the status smaller than a Regional Office.
The erstwhile SBI Zonal Office Dimapur was then shifted to Jorhat to create two zonal offices at Jorhat- SBI Zonal Office (South) and SBI Zonal Office(North).
In order to cement the downgrading of SBI Zonal Office, Dimapur, a new module was created, called Jorhat South on February 1,2013.
Nagaland was clubbed under SBI Zone Jorhat(South) with the districts of Jorhat, Nagaon, Karbi Anglong and Golaghat.
The SBI office in Dimapur was downgraded to that of a big branch office under an Assistant General Manager (AGM). This led to an unusual situation where officials of SBI Nagaland interact with the highest echelons in the state political and administrative set up; while officials of the four SBI districts in Assam interact only with district-level officials.
The downgrading also meant that the discretionary powers of the AGM is much lower than that of the DGM.
All important files have to go from Dimapur to Jorhat where the DGM sits to clear files from there. This involves delays and also travel. SBI officers from Dimapur office travel for three hours by road to Jorhat for official works and susceptible to frequent bandhs.
Secondly, as per the norms, A DGM is supposed to control above 75 branches. In order to satisfy this stipulation, a few branches in Assam are clubbed with Nagaland under the SBI Zonal Office (South)Jorhat.
In February 2016, the SBI Zonal Office(North)Jorhat was transferred to Dibrugarh.
Presently, there are 80 SBI branches in Nagaland and as per norms 75 branches can be placed under a Zonal Office. This meets the requirement and if 14 SBI branches in Karbi Anglong are clubbed together due to being contiguous the logistics would more beneficial for the branches as Dimapur will be nearer to Jorhat.
Like the fate of Dimapur railway station which has been given a step-motherly treatment from NFR at Maligaon Assam, it seems the trend against Nagaland is essentially quite prejudicial.