Mangaluru: A group of retired employees of Vijaya Bank alleged that the Congress has taken up the issue of Vijaya Bank only to receive votes from the public and it has no concern for the Bank.
Addressing at a press conference here on Tuesday, April 9, a retired officer of Vijaya Bank Balappa Shetty informed that the decision of merging Banks was taken during the regime of the UPA government. “When Narasimhan committee furnished a report on merging banks, no political parties opposed the report. Meanwhile, senior leaders of Congress like Veerappa Moily and Oscar Fernades had assumed top positions in politics. However, they did not speak a single word against the merger of the Bank. Despite, the employees of Vijaya Bank protesting for the same, it has not received any positive result”, he lamented.
Balappa Shetty questioned why some Congress leaders like Ivan D’Souza and J R Lobo opposed the proposal of renaming Light House Hill road after Vijaya Bank’s former chairman Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty.
“Both Ivan and J R Lobo had organised a protest by provoking students, against the move of keeping Mulki Sunder Ram’s Shetty to the road and succeeded to bring stay order. Hence, the Congress leaders including Ivan D’Souza, J R Lobo and Ramanath Rai have no moral right to raise the issue of Vijaya Bank”, he said.
“As Vijaya Bank has already been merged with the Bank of Baroda, it is not possible to demerge it again. However, coalition candidate Mithun Rai assures that he would try to demerge Vijaya Bank if he is be voted to power. There is a proposal of merging few more Banks in Congress’s manifesto also, which has been released two days ago. Then how Mithun Rai says that he would try to demerge Vijaya Bank?”, Balappa Shetty questioned.
Other retired employees like Ramakrishna Rai, Jayanth Shetty, Mohan Shetty and Somashekhar were present.
