Lucknow, 15 March: The United Forum of Bank Unions, an association of more than one million bank personnel, has called for a two-day nationwide strike to protest the central government’s efforts to privatize public sector banks.
However, on the first day of strike, massive gatherings of employees were held at State Bank of India’s head office in Lucknow.
Meanwhile, transactions of about Rs 2500 crores in Lucknow and 30,000 crores in the state were affected due to the strike of banks.
In the meeting, NCBE (National Confederation of Bank Employees) state general secretary KK Singh said that large industrial houses have looted the banks by using political influence. Today many scams are being exposed due to mismanagement of banks. Political pressure is not responsible for this situation, but bankers. Instead of stopping it, the government wants to take away the general banking facilities of the common people by privatizing the banks.
Pawan Kumar, Chairman of IABAK (All India Bank Officers Confederation), said that the Finance Minister in the budget speech gave IDBI in the name of giving a boost to the economy of the country. The government has stated its intention to sell the bank and two other public sector banks to the private sector.
Presiding over the program, state convenor of the forum YK Arora spoke that the government wants to fulfil the personal interests of the banks by privatizing the banks and handing over the money to the public to the fund capitalists. The bank workers and the general public will not allow it to succeed in any way.
Forum convenor Anil Srivastava said that in protest against these policies of the government, bankers have been organizing protest programs from 4 February 2021 through picketing, demonstrations, poster campaigns, mask masks, twitter campaigns and rallies etc.
Media in-charge Anil Tiwari said that according to various sources, the strike affected about 2500 crore transactions in Lucknow and 30000 crore in the state. So far, 10,000 bank employees of 905 branches of public sector banks in Lucknow district and 2 lakh bankers of 14000 branches of the state have participated in the strike.
“Around 990 ATMs in Lucknow and 12000 ATMs of the state left cashless resulting in many customers failed to withdraw money on the first day of strike. On the second day of the strike, massive gatherings and demonstration will take place in front of the Indian Bank Branch (formerly Allahabad Bank), Hazratganj at 11.30 am,” informed Tiwari.
