Bengaluru: The ‘Hindi Beda’ campaign from Kannada activists who consistently have been protesting the imposition of Hindi language had the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) authorities remove the signboards with Hindi text inside the metro stations in the city. Now, the activists have rushed to the banking sector.
Hundreds of Kannada activists owing their allegiance to Kannada Rakshana Vedike (KRV) Narayana Gowda faction staged a protest outside the State Bank of India (SBI) head office on St. Mark’s Road on Wednesday demanding that Kannada be made compulsory in the banking sector. The protesters demanded that all the bank challans and other documents used by the customers must have Kannada in place of Hindi.
Citing ‘Kannad Gottilla’ as an excuse made by many bank officials in the state when customers talk in Kannada, the protestors said that a person working in a particular state ought to know the local language to communicate properly with the locals.
“It is lame to assume only English and Hindi are the universal languages. Most of the people, especially in rural settings, don’t know both English and Hindi. If anyone wants to work in Karnataka, he or she ought to speak Kannada. It makes communication between officials and customers easier,” said, a KRV member.
KRV president T Narayana Gowda stressed that banks in Karnataka, both nationalised and private, should prefer Kannadigas for employment or hire those who can speak Kannada.
He also said that challans, cheque books, and applications should also be in Kannada as not all people follow English and Hindi.
According to Gowda, notices have been sent to all the banks across the state directing them to hire employees who know Kannada and implement a two-language policy with Kannada and English.
The KRV has given all the banks a month’s time for the implementation, failing which they would stage protests.
