Bengaluru BJP MP Tejasvi Surya reiterated his long-standing demand that bank officials should speak the regional language (Kannada). In a social media post on C Tejasvi Surya highlighted that bank customers from rural Karnataka face extreme difficulty when the banking staff do not communicate in their preferred local language. The criticism and assertion come after a viral video of an SBI branch manager refusing to speak Kannada with the customers.

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Local language issue

He further highlighted the importance of the issue by attributing it to other states as well and tagging it as a national issue. He wrote,”  Those that have a public interface – don’t communicate in the local language. This is an issue faced by millions of customers in many states.”

He mentioned raising this issue at multiple platforms, including parliament. As a result, the Government of India, Department of Finance has also reviewed their transfer policy.

According to the policy, banks have been directed to accommodate officers up to scale III in their respective linguistic region in order to ensure a smooth customer service. 

He further raised a question, “ How do large public sector banks which have a duty to serve customers, especially senior citizens and rural communities, not understand that serving them in the language they understand is most essential, especially in a sector as trust inspiring as banking?” simultaneously he urged SBI to follow the directions by GOI.

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Video of an SBI official

State Bank of India (SBI) branch manager near Bengaluru was caught on video refusing to speak in Kannada with a customer. The video, which went viral earlier this week, has reignited the debate on the importance of using regional languages in customer service.