Transaction worth crores hit on the second day of the strike

Cheque clearing, loan approvals and normal operations remained paralysed

Aurangabad, Dec 17:

Thousands of employees of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) continued their strike on the second day on Friday as well to protest against proposed privatization of banks by the Central government impacting normal operation across the district. Transactions and cheque clearances worth Rs 1200 crore across 400 branches were hit during the two day strike, informed Rajendra Devle of the United Forum of Bank union (UFBU) on Friday.

Shutters of branches across the district were down following the strike call given by the UFBU, an umbrella body of nine bank unions. As a result, services such as deposits and withdrawal at branches, cheque clearance and loan approvals remains paralaysed due to the two-day strike. PSBs had informed customers that services in their branches might be affected due to the strike. However, private banks were working as usual. Devle said that the strike was against the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, for facilitating privatization.

The government's decision to privatize PSBs which have been playing a vital role in nation building will be a disastrous step for the economy and common man. We got an overwhelming response to the strike call as about 2500 officials and employees of various branches across the district participated in the strike. We will carry out more such agitations in future if the government goes ahead with the bank privatization bill, said Devle. Sachin Deshpande, Manindarsingh Kansa, Mahesh Gosavi, Pratap Handrale, Ravindra Sutavane, Nilesh Kharat, Uttam Bhakre and others participated in the strike.