AGARTALA, Sep 13 (TIWN): Bandhan Bank felicitated India’s Prudunova Queen Dipa Karmakar on Tuesday at Agartala with a cash award of Rs . 5 Lakhs. While gifting Dipa Rs. 5 lakh 1 rupee cheque to Dipa Karmakar, Bandhan Bank CEO Chandra Sekhar Ghosh said, “If I couldn’t do honoring our State’s Olympian today, it would have been partiality on my part, as Dipa belongs to my state Tripura”. 23 yrs Olympian Dipa Karmakar is being felicitated by whole India and many states are helping her financially. Along with Dipa, Bandhan Bank CEO has promised to help her coach Bisweswar Nandi, so that many Dipa Karmakars from Tripura can be produced. Dipa who has made history as 1st Olympic Athlete from India with her unique talent in Produnova, has been felicitated at Hotel Sonar Tari in the presence of Bandhan Bank high officials, CEO Bandhan Bank Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, AMC Mayor Prafullajit Sinha & her coach Bisweswar Nandi. The main reason behind the felicitation, as Chandra Shekhar Ghosh said, “It is not business promotion, but she belongs to my own soil. I am indebted to her as she has made my state Tripura proud”.

“All of us know how much hard work she and her coach did, as being a girl of Tripura reaching Olympic was really not so easy”, he added. “I eagerly welcome Dipa in Bandhan bank and we are committed to help this Tripura Girl so that she can achieve Gold in Tokyo-2020”, CEO said. 

Bandhan CEO further mentioned that if a person, follows by 4 Ds in life as

1) Discipline 2) Dedication 3) Determination 4) Driving Spirit then anything is achievable in life..

“Dipa is successful, as she sacrificed many other sides of her life including, reading in any English Medium School”, added CEO Bandhan Bank, who started the Bank 15 years back, but only in 2014 the Bank got license from RBI.

During her speech Gymnast Dipa Karmakar thanked Bandhan Bank.

It’s worthy to mention here that Bandhan Bank started as micro-finance company in 2001, received banking licence by Reserve Bank of India in 2014. On 24 August 2015, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley officially inaugurated the bank in Kolkata. Incidentally, Kolkata-headquartered Bandhan is the first bank to be set up in eastern part of India after Independence.

Talking to Bandhan bank CEO he said in North East there are 93 branches and already in Tripura there are 23 branches. “More branches are in pipeline to be opened”, CEO said.

Apart from Bandhan Bank, Telengana Govt. has gifted Dipa Rs. 50 lakhs, Hyderabad businessman Chamundeswari Nath gifted BMW, MP Govt. is ready to spend Dipa’s full expenditure till next Olympic at Tokyo Olympics 2020.

Vijaya Bank already gifted Dipa Rs. 2.5 lakhs, adopted 2 poor girls education till they pass Post Graduation .

Being groomed and brought up with bare supports and skeleton like structure in Tripura it was tough for her to achieve Khel-Ratna, which she achieved after she came back from Rio.

When TIWN called Tripura Sports Minister Sahid Chowdhury about State Govt’s plan to reward Dipa with cash awards, Sahid Chowdhury flatly denied to help her financially with cash awards till she gets any medal from Olympic.

Bandhan Bank, Vijaya Bank felicitated  Dipa Karmakar, but large Banks like SBI, AXIS Banks are yet to swing into action to felicitate Tripura’s Olympic Pride with suitable cash rewards.