Many banks remain shut
A bank branch wearing a deserted look in Madurai on Tuesday.Photo: G. Moorthy
Transaction loss put at Rs. 750 crore
The bankers’ dawn-to-dusk strike call in the city and suburban locations led to a transaction loss of approximately Rs. 750 crore as about 500 branches of over 50 public sector banks and 5000 employees had shut their offices on Tuesday.
Protesting against certain ‘major’ policies proposed by the Central government, which were ‘anti-people,’ the bankers came under a common umbrella — United Forum of Bank Unions — had called for a day-long nationwide strike to draw the attention of the policy makers to take them back.
When many corporate account holders’ Non-Performing Assets (NPA) were given a soft approach and kept in cold storage, common men (Aam Aadmi) were forced to maintain a minimum balance of Rs. 5000 in a Savings Bank account.
“Only a few months ago, State Bank of India (SBI) opened SB accounts with zero balance...Many branches were even given targets in this regard then. However, suddenly, the Union government had come up with the proposal to open SB accounts only when the account holder agreed for a minimum balance of Rs. 5000. Such ‘anti-people’ stand should be scrapped,” the agitators said.
Likewise, there were proposals to form a Board, which would be empowered to take decisions to merge banks or branches. Sometimes, the Board may even suggest closure of bank branches stating that they were not viable any more or propose to sell a bank to private sector.
When the Centre allowed waiver of penal interest, gave concessions and even relaxed conditions on terms of payment for high-end debtors and big corporate groups, why did they tax common man, asked K. Velayutham, a banker afflitated to Banking Employees Federation of India.
Many traders expressed concern over the strike as they were unable to deposit cheques and perform normal banking transaction. Only senior level officers and key managers were present. However, private sector banks functioned as usual.
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