BENGALURU: The Kannada Development Authority has written to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, deamnding that he pressurise the Centre to cancel exams for rural banks to held on September 9 and 10. KDA president Prof S G Siddaramaiah said if the CM allows the exams to be held, then thousands of non-Kannada speaking people will be recruited to fill vacant posts in rural banks. “Ever since the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) decided to conduct exams, recruitments have been centralised and only candidates who are well-versed in Hindi and English are being recruited. This is why only 300 to 400 Kannadigas clear the exams out of 9,000 posts,” he said.
The KDA president added that bank employees should be able to converse in the local language to provide a smoother banking experience to consumers. “We request you to write to the Centre to stop them from conducting the tests. Further, the Centre should be pressured to allow the candidates to write competitive exams in the local language,” he said. He added that all recruitments to Central services like Excise, Railways, Staff Selection Service and GST should all allow candidates to take exams in the local language.