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"In our view, even if the allotment ratio is favourable "In our view, even if the allotment ratio is favourableor unfavourable for shareholders of associate banks, it isunlikely to make any difference since SBI holds 75-90 per centin these banks," Religare said in a note. Vyas of SBI said the bank will soon set up a grievanceredressal committee to be headed by a retired high court judgeto look into any issues of shareholders on the swap ratio. Once the grievances are addressed, the bank will approachthe Reserve Bank for its nod for the merger. "We expect to forward the proposal to RBI towards thelast week of September," Vyas said. Last month, the Cabinet had cleared the merger plan. During the June quarter earnings, Chairman ArundhatiBhattacharya had said the merger will lead to shuttering ofthe treasury desks of the merged entities, but ruled outmassive closure of retail branches. She had clarified though that there will berationalisation of branches, especially in cities. The over two century-old State Bank first merged StateBank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later, StateBank of Indore was merged. On Thursday, the SBI stock closed at Rs 248.20, up 0.79per cent, on BSE, while SBBJ shares ended today at Rs 673.30 apiece, up 3.49 per cent. SBM rose 2.06 per cent to end theday at Rs 621.70 and SBT closed at Rs 505.85, up 0.28 percent. Meanwhile, a section of public sector bank employees willgo on strike on September 2 along with central trade unions. All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) will jointhe all India general strike to protest against the centralgovernment’s "anti-people economic policies and anti-workerlabour reforms". "Banking industry is no exception. In the banking, we arealready aware of the government’s continuous attempts to pushthrough their reforms agenda aimed at privatisation of banks,consolidation," AIBEA said in a statement. PTI HV BEN KRK BKSNKD DP CSARD