ROURKELA: Banking services were paralysed on Friday across Sundargarh district with employees of public sector banks joining the two-day strike by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions.

Branches of all PSU banks and ATMs remained closed for the day. Sources said banking transactions worth over Rs 1,000 crore could not take place owing to the strike.

UFBU leader Sourav Pani said about 150 PSU bank branches with their ATMs in the district remained closed, while majority of private banks downed their shutters. On Saturday, the bank employees would take out a rally from Bisra Square to Uditnagar over their demands of wage settlement, five-day work a week and merger of special allowance with basic pay.

UFBU called for a two-day nationwide strike as talks with the Indian Banks’ Association on wage revision failed to make any headway. It would resort to three-day strike from March 11 to 13 and if needed they would launch indefinite strike from April 1.