A view of the Ranchi University, where an ATM is scheduled to come up soon. But varsity employees, who get their salaries only twice or thrice a year, say the cash dispensing machine is of no benefit to them. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Nov. 25: Ranchi University (RU) has decided to open two ATM outlets ? one at the institution and the other at the Ranchi Women?s College ? but the staff are taking the news with a pinch of salt.

University authorities have already negotiated with the Oriental Bank of Commerce, which has forwarded the matter to its regional head office in Bhubaneswar, following a decision taken at the (RU?s) Syndicate meeting held on November 19.

Oriental Bank?s RU branch manager B.S.P. Patro also confirmed the move and added that a request to shift the bank from its present location ? behind the RU main building ? to somewhere near the main gate has also been forwarded for the benefit of non-RU customers.

Though the university?s staff have welcomed the move, they questioned the rationale behind the decision to set up the teller machines.

Their question is where is the money that they could withdraw from the ATM when the university employees usually received their salaries after gnawing gaps of four to five months?

The president of the Federation of Universities Teachers? Association of Jharkhand (Futaj), Baban Chaubey, pointed out, ?There is no denying that opening ATMs is a good decision. But it is like purchasing furniture before the house has been built. As far as teachers and non-teaching staff are concerned, they do not have a regular inflow of money. So ATM or no-ATM will make no difference to them.?

The last time salaries were given to teachers was in August.

?Salaries for the months of September, October and November are yet to be released. Under such a circumstance, it is anybody?s guess what a teacher will do with an ATM card,? he said, pointing out that the ATMs will be beneficial to the employees only after the university and the state rectify the irregularities in salaries.

A third grade employed at the university headquarters, who did not wish to be named, echoed Chaubey and said if the ATMs are meant for general public too, then it makes more sense.

?We, the non-teaching staff, however, do not have any use of an ATM, particularly when financial problems (due to the delay in salaries) have affected our lives adversely.? Another employee observed that the ATMs are not going to be of any use to RU employees.

?We know that our salaries are transferred to the bank accounts only twice or thrice a year and most of us withdraw all the money in one go. So an ATM card will hardly help us except in making us feel good that we, too, own a ?valuable? plastic card,? he added.

Reacting to these complaints, university spokesperson S.S. Akhtar said: ?One should not be critical all the time. When something good is being done (RU) employees should appreciate it. As far as the financial problems are concerned, the university does not have the last say in it because it is mainly the state government?s prerogative.?