INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
In Budget 2021-22, the government announced its intent to take up privatisation of two PSBsBanking operations were affected across the
country on Thursday as close to nine lakh employees of public sector banks went on a two-day strike to protest against the government's move
to privatise state-owned lenders, unions said.Customers of these public sector banks (PSBs) faced difficulties as services like cash
withdrawals, cheque clearances and loan approvals came to a standstill due to bank branches not being operational.Banking operations are
likely to be impacted on Friday as well
The pan-India strike was called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) to protest against the government's decision to privatise two more
state-run lenders this fiscal.UFBU is an umbrella body of nine unions, including All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), All India
Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).The government had in Budget 2021-22 announced its
intent to take up privatisation of two PSBs during the year.Shutters of many branches of PSBs like State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab
National Bank and Bank of India were down on Thursday with a message informing customers about the strike.Apart from PSBs, some employees
from old generation private sector banks and regional rural banks also joined the strike, unions said.Bank employees right from sweepers to
senior executives in scale 5 are observing the two-day strike on December 16 and 17, they said.According to AIBEA General Secretary C H
Venkatachalam, about 20.4 lakh cheques worth Rs 18,600 crore could not be transacted on Thursday.Public sector lenders, including SBI, had
earlier informed customers that services in their branches might be affected due to the strike."PSBs act as catalysts in the economic
development of our nation in general and particularly for the underprivileged sections of the society and backward regions of the
country."Nationalised banks have played a major role in the development of agriculture, small trade, small business, SSI, transport and in
upliftment of weaker sections of the society," Venkatachalam said.AIBOC General Secretary Soumya Dutta said it is unfortunate that
operations of over 1 lakh branches of banks and regional rural banks have been impacted due to the strike because of the government's
attitude.Venkatachalam said many political parties including Congress, DMK, CPI, CPM, TMC, NCP and Shiv Sena have extended their support to
the strike.UFBU's Convenor (Maharashtra) Devidas Tuljapurkar said employee unions from Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) have also supported the strike.Around 60,000 PSB staffers in Maharashtra joined the strike
In Mumbai, approximately 5,000 bank employees held a protest at Azad Maidan, he said.UFBU's Convenor (West Bengal) Goutam Niyogi claimed the
strike in the state was total
Besides the two-day strike, a series of other agitations will be carried out if the government does not give up the idea of privatising
PSBs, AIBOC General Secretary Sanjay Das said.Das said the move to privatise state-owned lenders will hurt the priority sectors of the
economy as well as credit flow to self-help groups and the rural economy.According to him, 70 per cent of the country's total deposits are
with PSBs and handing them over to private capital will put the common man's money at risk.A section of bank employees, representing the All
India Bank Employees Union, wore black badges and staged a protest in Chennai, raising slogans against the Centre's move.In Tamil Nadu, the
ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) threw its weight behind the strike by offering its 'total support' to the protest.The DMK was
extending its support to the strike after union representatives apprised party president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on the
just reasons behind the agitation, party General Secretary Durai Murugan had said.In Rajasthan, 25,000 officers and employees working in
more than 4,000 branches of PSBs participated in the strike, UFBU's state convenor said.Bank employees held a demonstration outside the SBI
office near Ambedkar circle in Jaipur.In the Union Budget presented in February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the
privatisation of two PSBs as part of the Centre's disinvestment plan.To facilitate privatisation, the government has listed the Banking Laws
(Amendment) Bill, 2021, for introduction and passage during the current session of Parliament.The government has already privatised IDBI
Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019 and merged 14 public sector banks in the past four years.
