Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 21 (ANI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday strongly criticised the State Bank of India (SBI) branch manager in Surya Nagara, Anekal Taluk, Bengaluru for refusing to communicate in Kannada, despite the customer's request.
Siddaramaiah called on the Ministry of Finance to enforce language sensitisation training for bank employees nationwide, emphasising that respecting local languages is key to serving people with dignity.
In a social media post on X, Siddaramaiah wrote, "The behaviour of the SBI Branch Manager in Surya Nagara, Anekal Taluk, refusing to speak in Kannada & English and showing disregard to citizens, is strongly condemnable.We appreciate SBI's swift action in transferring the official. The matter may now be treated as closed."
The post further added on X, "However, such incidents must not recur. All bank employees must treat customers with dignity and make every effort to speak in the local language.I urge the Finance Ministry and Dept of Financial Services to mandate cultural and language sensitisation training for all bank staff across India. Respecting local language is respecting the people."
The Video of the manager refusing to speak in Kannada was viral on Social media and sparked further reactions from Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya, who stressed the importance of banks communicating with customers in Kannada.
Surya wrote on X, "This behaviour by SBI Branch Manager is simply not acceptable. If you are doing customer interface work in Karnataka, especially in a sector like banking, it is important to communicate to customers in the language they know. Being adamant like this is simply not right."
"I have time and again raised this issue of mandatorily posting local staff or staff who know the local language in banking operations, both inside and outside Parliament. Just a few weeks ago, at a Public Accounts Committee meeting, I had raised this issue to the DFS Secretary who assured me action will be taken to follow a office notification that makes this requirement of local language knowledge compulsory. Looks like this still isn't being enforced properly," he added.

Surya further wrote, "I urge the concerned at SBI to immediately implement the DFS policy that mandates local language requirement. I have spoken to concerned authorities to take action against this manager who has behaved in this manner. Banks working in Karnataka should serve customers in Kannada. Period." (ANI)