Karnataka mounts pressure on Centre to hold bank exams in Kannada; DyCM writes to Jaitley

Bengaluru, Aug 16: The Karnataka government has urged the Centre once again to take necessary steps to conduct banking exams by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) in Kannada language too.

In September 2017, then Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah had written to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley asking him to direct the IBPS to hold examinations in all 22 languages, including Kannada. Now Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara has written a letter to Jaitley requesting the same.

In his letter, Mr. Parameshwara also pointed out instances of customers being denied banking services in their mother tongue, as challans, application forms, procedural documents and ATM kiosks are available only in English and Hindi.

He said that this was not the first time that this demand was made. Earlier, Siddaramaiah and the Kannada Development Authority chairman SG Siddaramaiah, among others had also demanded for it.

He said that it goes against the very spirit of federalism and the interests of not just the people of Karnataka, but those from other states as well and urged the Finance Minister to take up the issue immediately.

 The CyCM stated that this is a “systematic discrimination”, which is creating social tension in the state’s banks. “I sincerely hope this letter will not be met with the same fate that the previous letters have met," he added.

G Parameshwara suggested that the bank officials in the state, who are not proficient in Kannada, must be directed to gain proficiency within a timeframe and later assessed as well. Their retention must be subject to passing this assessment. This will also make it easier for the people of Karnataka to contribute more proactively to the success of various schemes launched by the Centre, to achieve total financial inclusion in the country, he said.

In April 2017, the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) had  argued that the current system goes against Kannadigas, with non-Kannadigas gaining the upper hand and therefore has asked the then Chief Minister to stop the exams until they are held in Kannada.