Friday, 17 December 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Over 10,000 bank employees commenced a two-day strike on Thursday in Uttarakhand against the proposed privatisation of public sector banks by the central government. The strike reportedly affected the transaction of about Rs 300 crore across the state. Various services like cheque transactions, deposits and cash withdrawals were also hindered on the first day of the protest. The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions of employees and officers including the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW), has called this strike from Thursday against the central government’s move to privatise public sector banks.
The state secretary of AIBOC Pramod Ranjan Kukreti said that over 10,000 employees participated on the first day of the strike across the state and protested against the government that affected the transaction of over Rs 300 crores. He said that 90 per cent of public sector banks (PSBs) including Union Bank, Central Bank of India, Nainital Bank and Punjab National Bank (PNB) protested against the proposed privatisation of banks to convey their disagreement to the government. He said that the unions have expressed their disagreement to the government several times since it mentioned its intent to privatise banks but the ministers did not back out. “We displayed our protest by staging peaceful strike and it will continue to be same on Friday too. We will wait for the government to positively respond to our protest to its decision but if it fails, we will be bound to commence an indefinite strike,” stated Kukreti.
