Rejoinder and our reply
The Grameen Bank has issued a rejoinder to a report headlined “62 NGO branch offices stop operation in Khagrachhari” published in the Daily Star on page 6 on September 1.
The rejoinder said: “We were shocked to see the news. We immediately contacted our zonal office in Rangamati. We were reassured that nothing like the event you described actually happened. We have 49 branches in three hill districts. None of the branches was ever shut down for even a day for any reason.
Your reporter appears not to be aware of the difference between “Branch” and “Kendra”. The use of the word “Branch”, which is a big office of Grameen Bank's operation has created a major confusion. We request you to clarify this immediately.
Also, we would like to point out that Grameen Bank is not a NGO, it is a bank. Such a mistake, after so many years of Grameen Bank's operation, is not expected from a paper of The Daily Star's stature.
Our Reply:
We stand corrected on both the wrong use of the word “branch” and calling Grameen Bank a NGO. However we reiterate that 26 Kendras (not Branches) were closed and to that extent our report is correct, which was the main focus of our story.
We want to further clarify that 26 centres (Kendras) of Grameen Bank out of existing 1557 centres in Chittagong Hill Tracts were closed because of extortionists' threats, as reported in our original story. Grameen Bank has 49 branches in the three hill districts and all of them are fully operational.
We regret any confusion created by using the word “Branch” where we should have used the word “Kendra”.
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