Merger of banks only to help capitalists: Ivan D'Souza

MANGALURU: Coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in Karnataka have lost their identity as the ‘cradle of banking’ after the bank mergers by the Narendra Modi government, said MLC Ivan D’Souza.
He told reporters on Tuesday that Vijaya Bank, a profitable bank founded in Coastal Karnataka, has lost its identity completely after it was merged with Bank of Baroda. Meanwhile, the continuation of mergers may affect three more banks in the region including Corporation Bank, Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank.
“Banks are under loss, but our prime minister and finance minister want banks of India to function in lines of European and American banks. They want our banks to be powerful like European and American banks. However, they don’t consider the difference between the population of India and those countries. When the entire world was facing global recession, only Indian banks were strong enough to survive the crisis when the UPA government was in power.
We have never seen such an economic situation in India where bank branches are on verge of shut down. By merging banks, the BJP government wants to divert people’s attention and thereby help capitalists,” he alleged.
The government initially will merge banks and later they start reducing the number of branches, Ivan said. “Mergers will affect small farmers and entrepreneurs in villages. It is an attempt to privatise banks and this move will deny opportunities for farmers and small scale entrepreneurs to avail banking facilities. Let government clarify their stand on the economic crisis the nation is facing. Let the government explain whether the merger will benefit the nation,” D’Souza questioned.
The GDP has touched a record low and the government has taken Rs 1.76 lakh crore from RBI reserves, which is the security amount of people, he said adding that the merger of banks was not a decision taken for the common man’s welfare.
“Thousands have lost their jobs while most of the automobile and textile companies stopped production. Flow of foreign investments has almost stopped. The government should immediately review its decision to merge banks." He further added that the Congress party will stage protests in the days to come if the decision was not withdrawn.