2-day strike: Banking services paralysed in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: The Bank Street in Koti wore a deserted look on Wednesday after a two-day all-India bank strike was launched by the United Forum of Bank Unions in the State. With around 80,000 bank employees of various cadres going on strike, all the state and centralised banks in the city had their shutters half down. Security guards seated at the entrance were on the job of informing the few people coming to the bank that they are all shut for two days. “Not many people have been to the bank since morning, but we sent back a couple of people,” said the security guard at the Central Bank of India, in Koti.

Right opposite the Central Bank, the shutter of Lakshmi Vilas Bank was not down, but had a notice stuck on the door which read - All India Bank Strike - no transactions will be conducted. There were a couple of employees working.

“Not all employees are part of the union. Some of us have been employed on contractual or outsourcing basis. We are not holding any operations or conducting any transactions, but finishing our internal documentation and other pending work,” informed an employee who was also sending away people who came in to deposit cheques or demand drafts. The bank associations have been on strike opposing the 2 per cent wage hike that was offered by the government which is also offered as a partial mandate given by some of the banks only upto scale-III officers.  

“They may have problems with their wages, but we are the ones who are in trouble,” said Suryanarayana Rao, a customer of the State Bank of India.