RBI rebuts social media rumours on closure of 9 banks
Mumbai, Sep 25: Rebutting social media rumours swiftly, the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday said no commercial banks are going to be shut.
Finance secretary Rajiv Kumar described such social media messages as "mischievous" saying the government was in process of strengthening public sector banks by infusing capital in them.
"Reports appearing in some sections of social media about the RBI closing down certain commercial banks are false," the central bank said in a statement.
Messages are circulating in various social media platforms that nine banks will be closed down permanently by the RBI and appeals being made to public to withdraw their money from them.
"No question of closing any #PSB, which are articles of faith. Rather Govt is strengthening PSBs with reforms and infusion of capital to better serve its customers," Kumar said in a tweet.
The messages are being circulated a day after the RBI placed restrictions on withdrawals in the crippled Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC), thus affecting lakhs of customers.
The message i.e going viral on the social media, about nine banks will be closed down permanently by the RBI and appeals being made to public to withdraw their money from them.
Most of the banks named in the messages are those that have been either merged with other banks or are in the process of being merged.
Last month, the government had announced that 10 public sector banks would be merged into four.
Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India will be merged with Punjab National Bank, while Syndicate Bank will become part of Canara Bank.
Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will be merged with Union Bank of India, and Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank.
The government has already merged Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda.
Also, the IDBI Bank was taken over the public sector insurance behemoth LIC. Recently, the government announced to infuse capital into the IDBI Bank.
Reports appearing in some sections of social media about RBI closing down certain commercial banks are false.
— ReserveBankOfIndia (@RBI) September 25, 2019
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
