Pro-kannada organization demands all bank employees must learn Kannada in 6 months

Pro-Kannada organisation Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) today held a protest in front of a bank in Bengaluru.

The protestors demanded that  all employees should learn Kannada within six months or else leave their jobs.These protests were based on an incident in Mandya where a bank employee could not communicate with a local in Kannada and demanded that the local farmer learn Hindi to speak to him.

The organisation has given an ultimatum to all banks in Karnataka. Further they said that if their demand was not implemented in a month's time then they will continue their protest.The bank manager of State Bank of India, St Marks Road branch, Vasudev Adiga, said that they have always encouraged Kannada among their employees and that clerks who do not read or write the language will be not get a job.

However, now the group has demanded that not just at clerical level but also senior posts in the bank which is mostly occupied by staff from other states should also learn Kannada.Earlier, on Monday  Kannada Development Authority (KDA) had asked regional heads of nationalised, rural and scheduled banks to make it mandatory for non-speakers to learn Kannada in six months. KDA had also said that banks must follow the three-language formula in advertisements.