BJP Rajya Sabha member Lahar Singh Siroya on Friday criticised the Karnataka government’s decision to sever its financial dealings with the State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB), calling the move “arbitrary and suspicious.”
Siroya questioned why these two nationalised banks were specifically targeted, especially in light of a Rs 187 crore scam involving the Union Bank of India (UBI) and a state-owned corporation. He noted that all banks, including SBI and PNB, are governed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations.
The Karnataka government ordered on August 12 that all state departments, boards, corporations, public sector units, and universities withdraw their deposits and stop all business with SBI and PNB. This decision, reported on August 14, came after allegations of fund misappropriation.
Siroya referred to a recent scam where a former Karnataka minister, B. Nagendra, was arrested in connection with illegal transfers of funds. The scam surfaced after the Accounts Superintendent of the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation (KMVSTDC), Chandrasekharan P., died by suicide, revealing in his note how funds were moved to UBI and subsequently to various accounts in Hyderabad.
“If the state government has problems with the banks, should they not have reached out to the RBI? Can some nationalised banks be more acceptable and some less to the state government? What is the nature of misappropriation that the state government is talking about? Have they probed it? What really is happening within the Government of Karnataka?” the BJP leader asked.
The BJP MP expressed concern that the state government’s unilateral action might be aimed at creating distrust in the banking system. He also urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to address the situation and seek clarity on the matter.