Banking operations in the commercial city of Brahmapur came to a standstill for the second consecutive day on Thursday as hundreds of bank employees continued strike in protest against “meagre” two per cent salary hike offered by Indian Banks Association (IBA).
Resultantly, people suffered a lot in drawing cash and making other transactions.
In a press release, Bank Employees Coordination Committee secretary Ashoak Das lamented that while the nationalised banks earn a profit of more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore, a major chunk of it is being provisioned separately for NPA and the net profit is deliberately being shown low.
He said while fraudsters like Vijaya Malya and Nirav Modi have taken away thousands of crores of loan by fraudulent means, top industrialists, who have taken a lions’ share of loan, are not even paying interest. It is disappointing that the Government is silent over these illegalities.
“While banking transactions during the last four years have remarkably increased with a number additional financial transactions made under Jana Dhan Yojana, demonetisation process and insurance dealings, workload has increased for the employees,” he said.
Besides demanding that criminal proceedings be initiated against defaulters, Das and others demanded that the Government effect a rational increase in their salary at the earliest.
Due to the strike, branches of all the nationalised banks remained closed on Thursday. On Wednesday, the bank employees had staged a massive demonstration in front of the Indian Bank here. Similarly, they sat dharnas in front of branch offices of the SBI, Indian bank, Andhra Bank protesting the meager hike of 2 per cent in salary. Among others, Pratap Choudhury, Krushna Chandra Padhi, Ashoak Das and Govind Rao addressed the employees.