Dharna at Jantar Mantar by Bank Employees on 19 August against Privatisation of RRBs

A Dharna has been organised before Parliament against proposed disinvestment and privatisation of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs). The Dharna will be held from 11 am to 2 pm on 19th August 2025 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi.

The Government of India had recently merged the RRBs and a few months ago, the Government announced the public listing of RRBs. The government is planning to list at least 5 Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) on the stock exchanges by the end of FY27.

Bank Employees fear that listing of RRBs in stock exchanges will lead to privatisation of RRBs. RRBs are jointly owned by Government of India (GOI), Sponsor Bank and concerned State Government and with share proportion of 50%,35% & 15% respectively. The Government stake in RRBs will get reduced and the stake will be sold to private entities. The same has happened with Public Sector Banks. Slowly and Slowly, the stake of Government in Public Sector Banks has been decreased.

Not all RRBs will qualify for listing. Following conditions have been set for listing of RRBs:

• Net worth of ₹300 crore or more in each of the past 3 fiscals
• Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of over 9% for the same period
• Return on equity (RoE) of at least 10% in 3 out of the past 5 years
• The RRB must not be under the Reserve Bank of India’s Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework