Mumbai: Over a million bank employees from over 80,000 branches across India participated on the first day of the two-day bank strike that affected clearances of cheques and other payment instruments worth ₹16,500 crore, bank unions said.
Payment instruments like cheques, demand drafts and pay orders are processed by three large centres in the country. While Chennai handles 5.8 million instruments worth ₹5,150 crore on a daily basis, Mumbai handles 8.6 million instruments worth ₹6,500 crore and Delhi processes 5.7 million instruments of ₹4,850 crore. The strike commenced at about 6 am when service branches dealing in cheque clearances start operations and will end on Tuesday midnight.
C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) said that the first day of the strike was a success and since significant number of employees observed the strike, cheque clearances were badly hit.
“Our strike is not for any of our employee demands. The strike is to save our banks from being taken over by private vested interests," said Venkatachalam.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Union Budget for FY22 that the government will pare stake in two state-owned lenders apart from IDBI Bank, without specifying names. This prompted bank unions to declare a strike as tbelieve that it will not only affect employees but bank customers as well. To that extent, bank unions have begun engaging with customers and the public at large on what they believe are the ill effects of privatisation.
The All-India Nationalised Banks Officers’ Federation (AINBOF) said it set out on educating the customers and the public about this issue to garner support for their cause.
“The benefits of privatisation will accrue to the few corporate and private entities whereas majority of the country’s population may be left out of the mainstream banking," G.V. Manimaran, general secretary of AINBOF said in a statement.
News agency Reuters reported on 15 February, that those shortlisted are Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and Central Bank of India, although there was no official confirmation. To be sure, IDBI Bank is already classified as a private lender. In January 2019, Life Insurance Corp. of India (LIC) completed acquiring a 51% stake in IDBI Bank, after it was approved by the Union cabinet in August 2018. However, as Mint reported in September last year, LIC is planning a gradual sale of its stake in IDBI Bank.
In Mumbai, bank employees participating in the strike distributed pamphlets at railway stations like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Churchgate, Andheri and Thane to explain their stand against privatisation to the public, said Devidas Tuljapurkar, convenor, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) in the state of Maharashtra. UFBU is an umbrella body of nine bank unions.
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