 "SBI Bank")
Fearing revenue loss for Telangana after merger of State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) with parent State Bank of India (SBI), Communist Party of India General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy on Sunday said the state assembly should pass a resolution opposing the amalgamation.
SBH employees, along with the staff of other associate banks including State Bank of Travancore (SBT), would join a two-day strike on July 28-29 against the proposal, Reddy who is also the honorary president of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Bank Employees Federation (APTBEF) told PTI in Hyderabad.
Last month, SBI's board had submitted a proposal to the government for merging its five subsidiaries and first women-oriented lender Bhartiya Mahila Bank with itself.
The associate banks are — State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, SBT, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and SBH.
"Recently, Finance Minister Jaitley in his discussion with bank unions had suggested we can think of an alternative to merging of these five state banks. But suddenly, they called a meeting on May 17 and forced to request a merger of these banks though the workmen directors opposed it," he said.
He listed three issues with the proposed merger.
First problem, he said is psychological as SBH was founded by the Nizam of Hyderabad and it is a profit-making bank (Rs 1,061 crore this year).
"There is no reason why this bank, which is looked by the people as a Telangana bank, should be merged. Being a bank that was founded in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana those days, a share of the profit is given to the state government. If it goes to SBI, it will go to the registered office, it will go to the Maharashtra government," Reddy said.
Telangana government will lose the possibility of requesting SBH, the lead bank in the state, mobilising other banks to help farmers, he added.
The third objection he listed was that the staff of SBH and other subsidiary banks would not be treated on par with the employees of SBI.
"They (employees of SBH and other subsidiary banks) will be second rate citizens there. Their seniority will not be accepted for promotions. They don't get all the facilities which the SBI employees are getting. They will continue to have only what they were getting in SBH earlier. This is very humiliating," he said.
Due to merger, the state would lose a regional bank of its own and the bank's profits, farmers and local entrepreneurs, and self-employees would also be at loss.
Reddy said Telangana Legislative Assembly should pass a resolution opposing the merger and that the chief minister should lead the agitation.
The Chief Minister of Kerala has written a letter to Prime Minister with regard to the proposal of merger of SBT, Reddy added.
