SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Rural Bank Officers Association (MRBOA) has flagged the need for appointing locals who are proficient in local language and questioned the ‘controversial’ amendment of the language proficiency clause by the Ministry of Finance.
In an open letter to BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy, MRBOA general secretary Michael L Chyne said, “On what basis will a non-local be proficient in the local language within a period of six months?”
The MP had raised the issue of posting of qualified youth from the Indian heartland in Meghalaya Rural Bank in Parliament during the Zero Hour on August 1.
Referring to this, Chyne said, “We are perturbed that your honour had not realised that the crux of the matter is not that the authorities concerned are arbitrarily denying the posting. But it is the flawed appointment rules amended by the Ministry of Finance whereby one of the essential qualifications, that proficiency in local language was over-diluted, after its existence for over 40 years, since the Regional Rural Bank Act, 1976, was passed by Parliament.”
Chyne, who is also the joint general secretary of the All India Regional Rural Bank Officers Federation, also urged Rudy to consider the matter since regional rural banks were established through the Act of the Indian Parliament to cater to the poor, illiterate, uneducated and impoverished section of a specific region or state.
Earlier, the association had also sent a petition to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and stated that to be proficient in local language, one has to read the language up to Class VIII or above, in Boards of education or schools recognized by the government.
