‘I will Hold Hunger Strike if NDA Government Merges Vijaya Bank’ – MLC Ivan
Mangaluru: “Vijaya Bank is the prestige of Dakshina Kannada. But the NDA government is planning to merge Vijaya bank with other banks. If the government will not withdraw its decision, I will go on hunger strike in front of the DC office”, warned MLC Ivan D’Souza in a press meet held at his office, MCC Premises here on September 19.
Addressing the mediapersons Ivan said, “Vijaya bank has 60% of its branches in rural areas and is a ray of hope for the farmers, daily wage labourers, and the common man in the rural areas. The central finance ministry has taken a decision to merge Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda and Dena Bank which should be dropped.”
Ivan further said, “The Vijaya Bank was started in 1931 and in 2017-18, it is one of the most profitable banks. It is the only bank which has the highest number of branches in the rural areas. By merging Vijaya Bank with Dena Bank and Bank Baroda, the government is helping the corporate sectors. The NDA government should drop the idea of merging Vijaya Bank”.
Ivan also said, “Vijaya Bank has 2129 branches in the country. It has 70 branches in Dakshina Kannada and 63 branches in Udupi, altogether having 583 branches in Karnataka. If anyone dares to merge Vijaya bank with other banks, they should be ready to face the consequences”, Ivan warned.
“To reduce the NPA the NDA government has taken this step of merging the bank. Vijay Mallya fled the country with Rs 9300 crore and Neerav Modi Rs 13000 but the NDA government did not take any steps to recover the money from Mallya or Neerav Modi. Instead, it has taken steps to merge the banks in order to support the corporate sectors. A number of Corporate companies have duped the government of Rs 8.50 lakh crore. But the government has not taken any steps to recover the amount”.
“The government has already merged some banks with the SBI, the NDA government should clarify about the performance of those banks that have already been merged with the SBI. I will take this issue in the Assembly and also take a delegation to Delhi to meet Prime minister Modi and the Finance minister to withdraw their decision of merging Vijaya Bank,” said Ivan.