Another Congress legacy may be given a good-bye not before long

New Delhi: About 50,000 employees of five associates of the state Bank of India (SBI) went on a day-long strike on Friday protesting against the proposal to merge them into the parent body . It was called by all-India bank association

The five associate banks are: State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank Of Travancore

Though there is no strike on this issue, but the proposals made by the SBI includes merger of the Bhartiya Mahila bank too.

If implemented it will end another Congress legacy after replacing planning commission by Niti Ayog and changing some others. The associate bank merger proposal is old one but not the all-women bank proposal

Coming as it does in the wake of reversal of several decisions taken during the Congress regime, the proposal cannot be taken kindly by the party . It can, however, have some relief from the fact that the proposal has not yet taken any concrete shape.

It was the Congress government which had floated the idea of all women bank about four years back to empower women. It was one of the major announcements made by former finance minister P Chidambaram in his budget speech in the Lok Sabha. Named Bhartiya Mahila bank, it came into being in 2013. The Modi government which came to power two years back seems to be favouring its merger into the SBI too.

Larger aim was to merge smaller banks into a larger bank so that it has a better bottom line . To achieve it, associate banks of SBI were proposed to be merged with it. Two such banks became part of this bank over a year back. Five more are proposed to be merged now. In any case it is an old proposal

The proposal regarding all-women bank is relatively new and all- together different. It is the first bank of its kind which was opened with much fanfare. It has its own identity. Should it not be left alone?

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