Dhankuta, April 1:

The Dhankuta branch office of the Rastriya Banijya Bank, that was destroyed in a Maoist attack on February 7, has yet to resume operations. As a result, savings account customers remain badly affected. Try as they might, they are unable to withdraw money from their accounts.

According to officials of the bank, all documents of the bank were destroyed in the Maoist attack and the depositors are now facing problems because transactions in the saving accounts sector there have been closed since.

The bank had collected essential documents and information from the depositors to update their database after the attack but service has not been resumed because the Saving Claims Investigation Committee has not yet been formed, said branch manager Sukraraj Kunwar.

The RBB’s central office should have formed the committee but it has neglected to do so and this has created a lot of problems for the depositors, Kunwar said. The branch, however, has been accepting deposits in current accounts. A depositor, Deepa Guragain, said the bank should allow savings account holders to withdraw money if an account-holder furnishes all the original documents.

There are at least 15,000 saving account depositors in the Dhankuta branch of the RBB.