With the court dismissing a set of petitions filed against the formation of the Kerala Bank, the new entity has come into being on Friday night, Minister for Cooperation Kadakampally Surendran has said.
Mr. Surendran told reporters that the notification for setting up the bank was issued in the evening and administrator governance in the district cooperative banks would come to an end. An interim administrative committee comprising Cooperation Secretary Mini Antony, Finance and Resources Secretary Sanjeev Koushik and Kerala State Cooperative Bank Managing Director Rani George would take over the administration.
The interim administrative panel will make arrangements for running the administration of the banks without any hitch. The first general body of the Kerala State Cooperative Bank will be conducted in December for discussing the bylaw amendments post merger and also the administrative system and other factors.
The products and services offered by the State and district banks have already been standardised, but it will come into effect from January 1, 2020. The government had already decided to appoint P.S. Rajan, general manager of Union Bank of India, as the Chief Executive Officer of the bank. He would take charge by January 2020, Mr. Surendran said.
Cadre integration of staff will be completed by March 31, 2020, in consultation with employees organisations. Training for employees will be completed in six months. A clear policy will be framed for salary revision, promotion and transfer of employees. The logo and colour scheme of the bank will be released with the consent of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The RBI had cleared the proposal for forming the bank by merging 13 district cooperative banks with the Kerala State Cooperative Bank on October 7. All the 21 cases had been dismissed and the roadblocks had been cleared, he said.
He accused the United Democratic Front (UDF) of throwing hurdles to form the bank. But for the legal tangles created by the UDF, the bank would have come into being long back, he said.
