Banking services in the steel city were affected on Friday as around 3,000 employees of 110 branches of various public sector banks joined the nationwide strike today to protest against the Union government’s new reforms in banking policies.
The strike call was given by the United Forum of Bank Unions ( UFBU), an umbrella outfit of nine bank unions over Central government’s decision to merge State Bank of India’s (SBI) five associate banks with the former and privatisation of IDBI Bank by reducing the government capital leading to less than 49 per cent. The union also demanded that deliberate defaulters should be declared as criminal offenders.
Both workers and officers took part in the strike as they staged dharna-cum-demonstration in front of bank branches in various parts of the city to press their demands.