New Delhi, Mar 15 :
The two-day nationwide strike called under the aegis of United Forum of Bank Unions seems to have had a huge impact on branch operations of state-owned banks, with a top union leader claiming that cheques worth over Rs 16,000 crore were stuck as employees across branches stopped work protesting against the government’s move to privatise two public sector banks.
“Normal banking transactions, including clearing operations didn’t happen today. On an average about two crore cheques worth about Rs 16,500 crore are transacted per day. These cheques have not been cleared from morning. That apart, government transactions, money market transactions, etc could not be done,” C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of All India Bank Employees’ Association, told THE WEEK.
He claimed that except AGM/chief manager level branches, 90 per cent of the branches of public sector banks were closed on Monday and even where branches were open there were hardly any transactions. Private sector banks are not part of this strike.
In the Union budget announced on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had disclosed plans to privatise two state-owned banks as a part of the government’s disinvestment programme. This would be in addition to IDBI Bank, which was sold to Life Insurance Corporation of India last year.
Bank unions oppose this privatisation move. The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank labour unions, had given the call for a nationwide bank strike on March 15 and March 16.
Venkatachalam said there was no logic behind privatisation of banks given that private banks too had their share of problems. “If private banks were so efficient, why did Yes Bank have to be saved last year? You decided to sell Lakshmi Vilas Bank to Singapore’s DBS Bank. So, there are problems in private sector banks,” he voiced.
In March 2020, private sector lender Yes Bank was superseded by the Reserve Bank of India, after it failed to raise much needed capital. A few days later under a RBI-led reconstruction scheme, the bank was rescued after SBI and a clutch of other banks acquired a stake in it. In November last year, another ailing private sector lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank was sold to DBS Bank.
Venkatachalam said there was a need for public sector banks to work more effectively, but that could be achieved with a dialogue between the government and the banks, and not by privatising them.
“We agree government banks must be run more profitably, efficiently. If government wants banks to run more efficiently, they should speak with us. We are ready for a discussion. When the economy has to go forward, banks have to play a better role. We are ready to discuss with the government to enable the state-owned banks to play the bigger role,” Venkatachalam added.
