Employees of the private Lord Krishna Bank would intensify their agitation against the proposal to merge the bank with Centurion Bank of Punjab and will observe September 12 as "protest" day.Various employees unions under the banner of United Forum of LKB unions today said the merger would not benefit the LKB in any way, Lord Krishna Bank General Secretary Officers Association S K Sanil said.Centurion Bank had been earlier merged with Bank of Punjab, another crisis-ridden bank, he said.The financial problems of all the three banks would 'aggravate' following the merger, S S Pillai, General Secretary, Lord Krishna Bank Employees Union, E K Rajesh General secretary, LKBOA and O H Venugopalabhatt, General secretary, LKBWO said.The bank unions were of the view that any merger with new generation banks would lead to curtailment of social banking services, which would result in advances to agriculture, small business and industry dwindling, they said.LKB has 111 branches and 68 of them are in Kerala. The bank capital base is Rs 95 crore with a total business of Rs 3600 crore and a staff strength of 1200.The union leaders demanded a high level inquiry into the affairs of LKB necessiating a merger.After the Puri group became the major shareholder of the bank, they have been planning merger with various banks without taking into consideration the interests of the employees, they alleged.
