The Union Finance Ministry has said that in order to look into the demand for holding examination for clerical cadre in Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in local/regional languages, a committee has been constituted to look into the matter in its entirety.
“The committee will give its recommendations within 15 days. The ongoing process of holding the examination initiated by IBPS will be kept on hold until the recommendations are made available,” said a release issued by PIB.
It further clarified that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a statement in 2019 on conducting examination for the posts of Office Assistant and Officer Scale-I in Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) only in 13 regional languages, including Konkani and Kannada, besides Hindi, and English. Since then, examinations for these recruitments are being conducted in regional languages too.
“It may be clarified that the Finance Minister’s statement referred to Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) only,” said the release.
Earlier in the day, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah in a series of tweets that it was “betrayal” of Kannadigas to not allow candidates to write IBPS exams in Kannada.
In a series of tweets, the former Chief Minister alleged that “the latest notification by IBPS is an example of @BJP4India is an example for its anti-Kannada stand. Central govt should immediately address this & ensure justice to Kannadigas”.
The IBPS has not responded to repeated demands of providing an option to choose the local language to write the exams.
“IBPS had called for applications to fill more than 3,000 vacant clerk positions in about 11 nationalised banks. Out of these, 407 posts are in Karnataka. Injustice to Kannada will result in huge unemployment by leaving out Kannadigas in the competition”, the Congress leader alleged.
“Candidates were able to write IBPS exams in regional languages before 2014. After BJP came to power, rules were changed to allow English and Hindi only. We had even written a letter to the Prime Minister to protest against this. #IBPSMosa”, he alleged.
In 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had promised to hold banking exams in local languages.
The former Chief Minister said, “When our government in 2013-18 brought this injustice to the notice of the Central government and the Union Finance Minister, Mrs. Sitharaman, had assured us in Parliament to allow candidates to take exams in regional languages also. The promise is still not fulfilled. Kannadigas are ashamed of her.”
Mr. Siddaramaiah further tweeted “Most of the schemes of Central & State govts are implemented through banks. Farmers, labourers, women and many others are dependent on banks. Rural people are facing harassment from the staff who don't know Kannada”.
The Congress leader hit out at Mrs. Sitharaman and said: “Being elected to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, she has constantly betrayed Kannadigas and Kannada. She has continued the same with respect to IBPS exams. She is unfit to represent people of Karnataka in Rajya Sabha. She would resign if she had any shame”.
The former Chief Minister further said: “Karnataka has elected 25 MPs to Lok Sabha. What are these MPs doing? Though slavery is abolished, BJP Karnataka MPs are behaving like slaves of Narendra Modi. Shame on them!”
“@BSY’s followers call him Huli (tiger) but in reality he is ili (mouse). He hides in burrows when he has to stand up in front of @narendramodi. Let him resign if he cannot ensure justice to Kannadigas”.
