Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Mar 4: 'Save Vijaya Bank Action Committee' has urged political leaders to lead an all-party delegation to meet union ministers in efforts to persuade the government to reconsider its decision to merge Vijaya Bank with its roots in coastal Karnataka with Bank of Baroda. The committee said that the delegation should be taken to the central government before the Lok Sabha election schedule is announced.

A demand for taking a delegation of people's representatives from all the parties to meet the union ministers was taken at a meeting convened here recently to pool opinions of people's representatives from undivided Dakshina Kannada district about the said merger. President of the committee, Dinesh Hegde Ulepady, said in a press statement that leaders of different parties are being contacted for this purpose. Among them, former minister, Ramanath Rai, has expressed his preparedness to be a part of the delegation if the MPs fix a date to meet the union ministers, as BJP is in power at the centre.

Ulepady said that when this matter was brought to the notice of MLA, D Vedavyasa Kamath, he said he would arrange for the meeting once all the parties give him a specific date. Ulepady said that he is disheartened at the lack of response from political leaders on the issue.

"When Deve Gowda was the chief minister, he had invited anti-MRPL activists to Bengaluru at government expense for holding discussions and listen to their grievances. On these lines, people fighting against Vijaya Bank merger should be invited by the union government to hold meeting. If this meeting is held before Lok Sabha election is declared and the problem is addressed, the merger will come into effect from April 1," he pointed out.

Ulepady handed over a petition during the visit of former Prime Minister, H D Deve Gowda, to the city on Sunday and urged him to see that the said merger does not happen.