Andhra Bank merger affront on Telugu Pride and Sentiment

Amravati: The decision of the NDA government to go in for consolidation or merger of Public Sector Banks was a welcome step but in the process, its decision to merge 96 year old Andhra Bank which was founded by Bhogaraju Pattabhi Seetharamayya, a great patriot famous freedom fighter, close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and former Governor of Madhya Pradesh has come as a shock for the people in two Telugu states.

People feel that the government was playing with their sentiments. Henceforth the name of Andhra Bank would disappear and that hurts the people's feeling. Descendants of Seetharamayya's family in Machilipatnam said that it was a sad day for them as the founder was not an individual but as an institution. It was a bank that was started with about Rs one lakh investment.

The employees of Andhra Bank staged black badge protest opposing the move and said that the centre wants to encourage private sector banks. They said it was not right to say that Andhra Bank was in losses. This quarter also it had shown profit and is in a sound financial position. If the government can recover non-performing assets from major industrialists who corner 70 per cent of loans there would be no need for such mergers. Andhra Bank has a large number of branches in North and Eastern states as well, they said. Apart from fears about their service, what pains them most, they said was the sudden disappearance of a bank which was close to known as a 100-year-old bank in four years time.

This is the only bank which has a memorial in Machilipatnam and has a huge building in Kothi in Hyderabad where the head office is located. In fact, it has become a landmark building in Kothi.

The people and employees also took strong objection at the attitude of the two Telugu state governments since neither the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao nor the Andhra Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy protested the move. The chief ministers have not done anything to protect the Telugu pride, they added.

With this move, only the two Telugu states will be losing their identity in the Banking sector/ Every state whether Punjab National Bank or Maharashtra bank all have their own banks. This is most unfortunate, old-timers, customers and employees told The Hans India.

The Rajya Sabha MP KVP Ramachandra Rao shot off a letter to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman to reconsider the decision and exempt Andhra Bank He said it was unfortunate that this decision was taken by the daughter-in-law of Andhra State who is heading the Union Ministry of Finance.

He said at least the Union Government should retain the name of Andhra Bank to the group of banks being merged in reverence to Bhogaraju Pattabhi Seetharamayya and as the mark of respect to the sentiment of 10 crore Telugu people.

The BJP felt that there was nothing wrong in the merger as except the name nothing else would change. But the people say that that is what hurts the most. There are over 3000 branches of Andhra Bank across the state. It is the only bank which started as a bank for farmers and grew into a major one. While supporting the merger, YSRCP leader K Rambhupal Reddy said that it was the pride of Andhra Pradesh.

TDP and left parties however strongly opposed the move and said that it amounts to affront on Telugu pride. CPI state secretary K Ramakrishna said all sectors including Agriculture and Industries registered steep fall in the growth rate. But now the central government was taking undemocratic steps by merging banks, he added.