Economic crisis has engulfed all, claims trade unionist

Nagpur: If the government has obtained surplus reserve of Rs1.76 lakh crore from Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which is supposed to be used in a warlike situation or in economic emergency, then it should admit that it is facing financial stress, said trade unionist Vishwas Utagi, on Wednesday.
He was delivering a lecture on ‘Is financial crisis a manifestation of economic crisis?’ at India Peace Centre (IPC), Civil Lines. The event was organized by IPC, Workers’ Welfare Research and Training Institute (WWRTI), Minds, Urban Rural Mission (URM) and Nagrik Abhiyan.
IPC volunteers from Germany Leonie Kuhl and Leona, Rajesh Jadhav and Moses Gour from URM and Jammu Anand from Nagrik Abhiyan were present.
Utagi concurred that financial crisis is a testimony to economic crisis. “Basically, economic crisis has engulfed all of us. Last week, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that 10 public sector banks will be consolidated into four big banks. After this, the total number of public sector banks will come down to 12 from 27,” he said.
“This move was made under the guise of resolving recession. We defend a matter by stating that different parties were in power. The issues and perceptions between the opposition and ruling parties have changed but action is the same,” he said.
“Consumer demand across all industries has subdued. This is evident from the fact that the common man has been impacted by looming economic crisis. The previous ruling party is held accountable at every juncture. Now that the current government has been elected for the second term, it should be answerable as to what developments were made in the last five years,” he said.
Utagi said, “We were introduced to a number of schemes and assured to increase the rate of employment in the manifesto before the Lok Sabha elections. Many of these schemes have not taken shape. Houses constructed under affordable housing scheme are ready but money has not been transferred through the banks. The unemployment rate at 6.1% is at a four-decade high.”
Anand made the introductory remarks.