The failure of the BJP government at the Centre to revert to the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection’s (IBPS) pre-2014 notification with regard to recruitment has come back to haunt the party in Karnataka.
The pre-2014 notification regarding IBPS recruitment mandates proficiency in the local language while recruiting for national and rural banks, but in the latest recruitment advertisement, the IBPS has gone with English and Hindi proficiency test alone.
Crying foul, Opposition leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah said, “Central govt has again cheated the people of Karnataka. They are taking the identity of Kannada for a ride. Does the promise of @nsitharaman & @tejasvi_Surya mean nothing? Their lack of knowledge & breach of trust is a spectacle for moral spinelessness & political ineptitude. #IBPSmosa.”
The Congress also responded saying, “Kannadiga demand of restoration of domicile clause prior to 2014 in #IBPS exams are repeatedly Ignored by @narendramodi @nsitharaman promise in Parliament to conduct exam in Kannada is also dishonoured. The recent notification has humiliated Kannadigas. We demand justice to kannadigas.”
The Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) had made the IPBS recruitment anomaly an election issue and had accused the BJP-led government of depriving Karnataka candidates of jobs and making way for non-Karnataka candidates.
Preference to Kannadigas
During the Cong-JD(S) coalition governement in State, the then Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy had met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in New Delhi and had urged the Centre to review the clause of language proficiency to ensure that the candidates with proficiency in local language are given preference in Regional Rural Banks (RRBs).
When the issue was raised, first time MP Tejasvi Surya, too, had raised the issue in the Lok Sabha and had led a team of Karnataka MPs to impress upon Nirmala Sitaraman and a memorandum was submitted to her. Kumaraswamy had said, “RRBs have been constituted to sub-serve the banking needs of the local people, with efficiency, by interacting with the customers in the local language. This will not only lead to better service but also provide employment opportunities to local people.”
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