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PIL against move to appoint outsiders as PSU bank honchos

The government's move to appoint private bank executives to head large public sector banks has drawn ire from various quarters. Compounding the matter is a public interest litigation filed by KD Khera, former president of the All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), in the Supreme Court.

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The government's move to appoint private bank executives to head large public sector banks has drawn ire from various quarters. Compounding the matter is a public interest litigation filed by KD Khera, former president of the All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), in the Supreme Court.

The PIL challenges the advertisement of February 26 published by Department of Financial Services inviting applications for the post of managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) in five public sector banks -- Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, IDBI Bank and Punjab National Bank.

Senior bankers who have put in over 25 to 30 years in the public sector banks are also disheartened by the government's move. They say that the government is also not giving a level-playing ground to the public sector executives by putting in strict conditions for selection. The new eligibility criteria of choosing MD and CEO is that the candidate should have at least 15 years of mainstream banking experience, of which three years should at least be at the board level. The candidate should be in the age group of 45 to 55 years and will have a fixed tenure of three years, subject to normal age of superannuation of 60 years.

In the PIL, Khera said, "The government has deliberately and discriminatingly designed eligibility criteria for the top post of five large PSBs, to make only private sector applicants eligible, on account of the cut-of-age criteria. Almost all existing executive directors (EDs) in PSBs will not be able to apply for these posts on account of cut-of-age with three years experience at board level.

He said that there is a serious risk that such criteria can give undue benefit to a particular set of people. This is nothing but well thought-out attempt to privatise PSBs to benefit certain set of individuals and institutions, he said, adding, this can jeopardise the investment of common man and national economy.

The officers' trade union organisation, AIBOC has also opposed the move of the government. Its general secretary, Harvinder Singh has made a presentation to the finance minister and prime minister to appoint the MDs and CEOs as per the process already in place.

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