New Delhi, Jul 13 (IANS): The Centre has set up a committee to look into the demand for holding examination for clerical cadre in Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in local and regional languages, an official statement said on Tuesday.

A Finance Ministry statement said that the Committee will give its recommendations within 15 days, and only after that the ongoing process of holding the examination initiated by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection will be restarted.

The ministry is looking at conducting bank examination even in regional languages as is being done in case of recruitment examinations conducted for regional rural banks (RRBs). This comes in wake of controversy surfacing recently that the IBPS is conducting examinations for selection of clerical cadre staff in PSBs only in two languages - English and Hindi - even though 22 languages are recognised by the Constitution.

It also sought to clarify a statement made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in 2019 when she had assured holding banking exams in local languages, while linking the IBPS' latest advertisement offering choice of just two languages.

"It may be clarified that the Finance Minister's statement referred to above was made in the context of regional rural banks (RRBs) only. With a view to provide a level playing field to the local youths for availing employment opportunities, the government in 2019 decided that for recruitment of Office Assistant and Officer Scale I in RRBs, examination will be held in 13 regional languages including Konakani and Kannada, besides Hindi and English. Since then, examination for these recruitments are being conducted in regional languages also," the statement said.