Sack staff who can't speak Kannada: KDA tells banks

Employees in nationalised as well as private banks in the state should learn Kannada within the next six months or else they should be dismissed, the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) has said.

In a letter to nationalised, scheduled and rural bank zonal managers on Monday, KDA chairman S G Siddaramaiah said Kannada should get primacy in the administrative affairs of all banks in the state.

“The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection clarifies in the application form (for jobs in banking sector) that preference should be given to candidates who can speak local languages. There is also a provision in rules for dismissing the personnel who have not learnt Kannada,” the letter says.

“All information should be provided in Kannada so that people can conduct all the affairs in banking easily. The Reserve Bank of India has made this clear in its guidelines,” Siddaramaiah stated in the letter.

Noting that many banks were disregarding the rules, he said the staff in many banks do not give information in Kannada by using the three-language formula as a ruse. “Banks are not interested in implementing local languages. This has affected many poor and rural people,” he said.

The letter directs bank officials to submit a report on implementing Kannada. “I will visit banks soon and take stock of the situation,” the KDA chairman said in the letter.