Kumta: Kannada Sahitya Parishat Kumta Taluk President Shirdhar Gowda Uppinaganapathy has demanded that Kannada-speaking employees should be posted, especially in rural branches of nationalised banks, to felicitate smooth communication between the employees and the customers.

Some members of women self-help groups, taking part in the protest held at Gudeangadi, in Kumta taluk, on Thursday, against the move to shift Vijaya Bank branch on the pretext of ‘loss’, stated that customers were finding it difficult to speak about loans and other banking transactions with employees of banks who do not know Kannada. They cited this as one of the reasons for bank incurring heavy loss.

Gowde visited the protesters, and lent his support. He said, the bank had earned profit in the past, but started incurring losses past six years due to lack of Kannada speaking employees.

“If the bank is constrained to post non-Kannada speaking employees, it should ensure that they get trained to speak the language within stipulated time.” Shifting the branch from village was not the right solution, he observed.

Bank’s Regional Manager K R Ravichandra said it was difficult to post Kannada speaking officers to all branches since the number of officers from north India getting recruited was more.

He assured steps would be taken to ensure at least one Kannada speaking officer is posted in the branch.

MLA Dinakar Shetty, and others were present.