Mangaluru: With the portraits of the founder directors’ photos removed from the Vijaya Bank regional office on LHH Road, the people of Dakshina Kannada are now forced to forget the legacy of this bank which was part of the district’s identity, permanently.
It may be recalled that Vijaya Bank, the pride of the Dakshina Kannada district, and Dena Bank were merged with the Bank of Baroda on March 31, 2019. Though the people of the district, cutting across the party lines, staged protests against the merger, the Union government responded with deaf ears. Even though the bank started functioning under the name of ‘Bank of Baroda’ from April 1, 2019, there were no efforts made to remove the photos of the founder directors of the Vijaya Bank, displayed above the entrance of the regional office near Ambedkar Circle. However, as per the recent direction of the higher officials, the photos of all the founder directors have been removed.
With this development, the people of Dakshina Kannada and the future generation of this region will have no reference to the rich history of Vijaya Bank. An empty space on the board now welcomes the customers, save for the names of the founder directors which still remains.
The Vijaya Bank was started by Attavar Balakrishna Shetty and like-minded philanthropists Sooryanna Shetty, Venkappa Punja, Jagannath Ballal, Hariyanna Hegde, Anthaya Shetty, Venkappa Shetty, Manjayya Hegde, Narayana Bhandary, Mahabala Pai, Dr. Mahabala Adyanthaya, Krishnaiah Hegde, Naganna Hegde and Ramakrishna Punja. The bank achieved huge success during the chairmanship of Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty, who is known as the ‘Architect of Modern Vijaya Bank’.
For now, the portraits of Attavar Balakrishna Shetty and Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty can be seen hanging inside the office, however, no one knows for how long these will last.
Photos and documents of Vijaya Bak to be kept in Vijaya Bank Museum
Speaking to Newskarnataka.com, senior manager of Bank of Baroda LHH Road branch Suhas said that the photos were removed as per the direction of the higher officials but they would be kept at the Vijaya Bank museum on M G Road in Bengaluru. When asked whether the photos would be put back on the wall in memory of the founder directors, he said that there is no chance of that happening as even the documents of the Vijaya Bank will be kept in the museum.
