The two-day nationwide strike called by the United Forum of Bank Unions, an umbrella organisation of bank employees and officers, to protest against the proposed privatisation of two public sector banks, affected banking services in the districts on Monday.
In the Union Budget presented last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the privatisation of two banks as part of Centre’s disinvestment proposal. The Unions had called for the strike to oppose the government’s move.
In Erode, over 2,200 employees from 217 public sector branches participated in the strike affecting services such as deposits, withdrawals, cheque clearance and loan approvals. In many branches customers had to wait for long hours as only a few employees were present. Many branches wore a deserted look. Employees also staged a demonstration in the city condemning the proposal and wanted the Centre to drop the plan. They said that transactions to the tune of ₹ 550 crore were affected due to the strike. However, Automated Teller Machines were refilled on Monday by private security agencies.
Many traders said that closure of banks for three days would affect their business and non-clearance of cheques would result in huge loss to them. The Erode District Small Scale Industries Association had recently urged the Central government to ensure that banks were not closed continuously for more than two days.
Krishnagiri Special Correspondent adds
The strike in Krishnagiri witnessed participation of employees from all major public sector banks and regional rural banks.
According to the Bank Employees Federation of India, Krishnagiri chapter, the biggest crisis of the public sector banks was the non-performing assets. The Unions and Associations have been demanding the successive governments to strengthen and enact stricter laws for the recovery of bad loans, of which the big ticket loan are the big cause of worry. “The laws enacted so far are not effective to recover the non-performing assets, which may accrue to ₹9 lakh crore. Instead of addressing these concerns, the government’s move to disinvest public sector banks would be detrimental to the growth of the country,” the BEFI has said.
According to S. Hari Rao, president, Indian Bank Employees Association, over 100 employees took part in protests at various places.
