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A whopping 52 per cent of Board positions in 11 nationalised banks remain vacant for a long time, said a top leader of All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA).

Ninety one out of 175 Board positions are vacant in the 11 nationalised banks, said C.H.Venkatachalam, General Secretary.

Venkatachalam in a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said from 2014 when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power, the posts of Workman Director and Officer Director representing the employees and officers of the Banks remain vacant.

According to Venkatachalam, the constitution of the Boards of Directors of the nationalised banks is governed by the provisions of Section 9 of The Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 and Nationalised Banks (Management and Miscellaneous Provisions ) Scheme, 1970.

"Every post of Director representing different fields and interests is very very important as envisaged in the Act. But we observe that many of the posts of these Directors in various Banks remain vacant," Venkatachalam said.

According to him, keeping such important posts of Directors of the Banks vacant and without filling up the same defeat the very purpose for which these posts were envisaged and created to take care of the varied interests and fields of banking operations of the banks.

"It also runs counter to the much-professed principles of good governance," Venkatachalam said.

The 11 banks and the number of Board vacancies are as follows:

Bank of Maharashtra (9 out of 15), Bank of Baroda (7/17), Bank of India (9/20), Canara Bank (8/16), Central Bank of India (9/16), Indian Bank (9/16), Indian Overseas Bank (9/15), Punjab & Sind Bank (8/13), Punjab National Bank (8/16), UCO Bank (8/14), Union Bank of India (7/17) - total 91/175.