All banking operations in the city on Friday came to a grinding halt following a strike by employees and officials of all 22 nationalised banks in the city.
As a result of the strike banking transactions worth crores of rupees were affected. A total of 10 lakh bank employees and officers have joined the nation-wide strike on Friday following a call given by the United Banks Union against merger of banks, its privatisation among other demands.
On Friday, the striking bank employees of the city on Friday at 10 am took out a joint rally from Punjab National Bank (Sitlamata Bazar branch) up to PY branch of the State Bank of India where the rally converted into a meeting.
Addressing bank employees, member of the All India State Bank Staff Federation Council and the deputy general secretary of the Employees Union Al Madhuraj and Mohankrishna Shukla accused the Union government of suppressing the rights of bank employees. They urged the government to stop tempering with the labor laws as well as outsourcing of the banks.
The United Forum of Bank Unions convenor Mohankrishna Shukla informed that bank unions besides lodging their protests against banks' mergers, its privatisation and unification, have also urged the Union government to strictly recover Rs 13 lakh crores of banks’ defaulted loans and register cases against those who have defaulted bank loans.