A National Rural Bank of India (NRBI) should be formed by amalgamating all the 82 regional rural banks having 17,000 branches in the country to take care of agricultural and rural credit, Secretary-General of All India Regional Rural Bank Officers Association Dilip Kumar Mukherjee said on Sunday.
Formation of NRBI on the lines of IDBI and SIDBI was recommended by the Parliamentary Committee and Steering committee, he told a media conference here. A total of 196 regional rural banks were being amalgamated in phases, he said and demanded its stoppage and formation of NRBI to grant autonomy to RRBs. President Pranab Mukherjee issued orders, on the last day of his stint as Union Finance Minister, for granting pension parity to RRB staff with commercial banks. The deadline fixed for it would end on November 23, Mr. Mukherjee said and warned of an agitation if relevant approvals were not given by then. Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank Officer Association president K. Narasimhulu, APGB Employees Association President D. Mohammed, president G. Venkata Reddy, general secretaries K.V. Siva Reddy and A. Suresh and CITU district vice-president A. Raghunatha Reddy participated.
