According to AIBEA general secretary CH Venkatachalam, transactions involving 20.4 lakh checks worth Rs 18,600 crore could not take place on Thursday due to the strike.
nationwide strike of banks
About nine lakh employees of public sector banks of the country started a two-day strike on Thursday in protest against the privatization of public sector banks. Today i.e. Friday is the second day of the strike of bank employees. Let us tell you that on the first day of the strike, the functioning of public sector banks across the country was affected. The customers of these banks had to face difficulties due to the shutdown of services like deposit and withdrawal, check clearing and loan approval due to the closure of the banks.
In view of Thursday, the functioning of banks is expected to be affected on Friday as well. Let us inform that this strike has been called by United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), a forum of nine bank unions including All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Bank Employees’ Organization (NOBW). Employees are on strike against the government’s decision to privatize two more public sector banks in the current financial year. The government had announced the privatization of two public sector banks in the budget for the financial year 2021-22.
Many branches of public sector banks remained closed on Thursday
Several branches of state-run banks like State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank and Bank of India remained closed on Thursday with customers informed about the strike. Employees unions said that apart from public sector banks, some employees of older generation private banks and regional rural banks also joined the strike. He said that officers of all classes, from sanitation workers to senior officers, are taking part in this two-day strike.
According to AIBEA general secretary CH Venkatachalam, transactions involving 20.4 lakh checks worth Rs 18,600 crore could not take place on Thursday due to the strike. State-run banks, including State Bank of India, had already informed customers that services at their branches may be affected due to the strike.
Work affected in more than one lakh branches
Venkatachalam said, “Public Banks act as a catalyst in the economic development of our country in general and for the underprivileged sections of the society and backward areas of the country in particular. Public sector banks have played an important role in agriculture, small business, small business, small scale industries, small scale industries (SSI), transport and upliftment of weaker sections of the society.
AIBOC general secretary Soumya Dutta said that it is unfortunate that the strike due to the attitude of the government has affected the functioning of more than one lakh branches of banks and regional rural banks. Venkatachalam said that many political parties including Congress, DMK, CPI, CPI(M), Trinamool Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena have supported the strike.
60 thousand employees took part in strike in Maharashtra
State coordinator of UFBU in Maharashtra Devidas Tuljapurkar said that the employees unions of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and Reserve Bank of India have also supported the strike. In Maharashtra, about 60,000 employees of public sector banks took part in the strike. He said that 5,000 bank employees protested at Azad Maidan in Mumbai. UFBU coordinator in West Bengal Gautam Niyogi claimed that there was a complete strike in the state.
AIBOC general secretary Sanjay Das said that if the government does not give up the idea of privatization of public sector banks, there will be many more protests besides the two-day strike. He said that this move of the government will hurt the private sectors of the economy as well as the flow of credit to self-help groups and the rural economy will also be affected.
14 public sector banks have been merged in four years
Sanjay Das said that about 70 percent of the country’s deposits are with public sector banks and by handing them over to private capital, the money of the common man will be put at risk. A section of bank employees in Chennai protested wearing black badges and raised slogans against the Centre’s decision to move. At the same time, in Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur, bank employees protested outside the SBI office near Ambedkar Circle.
Significantly, in the Union Budget presented in February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the privatization of two public sector banks under the Centre’s disinvestment plan. To facilitate privatization, the government has listed the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 for introduction and passage during the current session of Parliament. The government had earlier privatized the bank in 2019 by selling its majority stake in IDBI to LIC and also merged 14 state-run banks in the last four years.
With PTI inputs
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