To protest the Bank of Rajasthan's management plan to merge with the ICICI Bank, more than 4200 employees of Bank of Rajasthan went on a two-day countrywide strike on Friday.

The two-day strike would be accompanied by a three-day strike beginning from June 17 to June 19.

Mr. Vishwas Utagi, Secretary of All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) urged the central bank to investigate the proposed take over and not sanction the amalgamation of two banking institutions.

Mr. Vishwas stated, "The entire Bank of Rajasthan is totally closed because 4,200 officers as well as employees are on strike. Its head office is in Udaipur and its Corporate Office is in Mumbai. The board of Bank of Rajasthan has decided to approve the merger with the ICICI Bank and ICICI Bank has approved the merger with Bank of Rajasthan."

"The employees and the officers are opposed to this merger proposal. We are requesting the Reserve Bank of India to review the deal and not to give any such approval for this proposal," he added.

Mr. Utagi also said that Tayal Business Group, who had taken the control over the bank's board, misused the public funds in the bank.

For breaching its rules in financial matters, the RBI had imposed a fine of Rs 2.5 million on the bank.

Mr. Utagi alleged that despite this actuality, the bank's board members approved its merger with the ICICI Bank on May 18.

He also stated that Tayal Business Group had 55% share holding in the Bank, which was contested by Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), who claimed that it had only 30 percent.

"Why is RBI allowing the merger of this bank? This is our question. This is very intriguing factor; when RBI claims that there is corporate governance. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee claims that there is corporate governance prevailing in SEBI, RBI and Finance Ministry," Mr. Utagi said.

Mr. Utagi added that if their demand gets ignored, they would move this issue to the Supreme Court. (With Inputs from Agencies)