Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Dec 26:
More than 10 lakh officers & employees working in the Public Sector banks & Old generation Private Sector Banks observed on one day strike today to protest against proposed merger of three public sector banks viz: Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank & Vijaya Bank.
The strike was total with work in all the Banks across the country coming to a grinding halt.
In Jammu, the striking employees held a massive demonstration at SBI, Zonal Business Office, Rail Head Complex, Jammu. The protesters raised slogans against the Government of India and Finance Ministry for forcing merger of three banks without following lawful process.
Speaking at the demonstration, Suresh Wali, State Secretary, AIBOC highlighted that of the three banks, Vijaya Bank was the only Public Sector Bank besides Indian Bank, which showed a profit during Fy 2018. By merging Vijaya Bank with Dena Bank, which has a huge NPA level of 24.9% & Bank of Baroda, which carries a NPA baggage of 13.2%, even Vijaya Bank is expected to become a loss making entity.
He said that all previous misadventures of Bank Mergers have proved as total failures. Historically speaking, the merger of New Bank of India with PNB in 1993 resulted in PNB suffering a loss of 93 crores. A similar fate was met by Oriental Bank of Commerce when in 2004 Global Trust Bank was merged with it.
