Jamshedpur, Feb. 28: Banking operations in Jamshedpur along with the whole of Jharkhand and Kolhan came to a halt on Tuesday as more than three thousand bankers staged a strike against various demands including those related to wages.
In places like Jamshedpur, strike at a call of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), consisting of 9 bank unions namely AIBEA, AIBOC, NCBE, AIBOA, BEFI, INBEF, INBOC, NOBW, NOBO to press for wage revision and other demands was a total success in all the Banks all over the Steel city and Kolhan.
The nationalized banks remained closed while there were large queues in private banks. Its estimated that transaction worth Rs 100 crore has been affected during the day-long strike. 350 branches of 27 nationalized banks remained shut where lakhs of population of the district remained dependent on ATMs.
Although, transaction through net banking would continue as normal. 1800 employees of the city and 3000 employees of Kolhan remained on strike.
Nearly three thousand employees, officers and Managers of Public sector banks, old generations private banks , Regional Rural Banks and Co-op. Banks in Kolhan participated in the strike.
Led by convener of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), SK Dasgupta hundreds of bank employees stage a sit-in protest before the State Bank of India (SBI) Bistupur Branch. Employees and officers were also seen protesting at other bank branches across the city.
According to SK Dasgupta the one-day strike is against the Narendra Modi-led government�s monetary policy and reforms in the banking industry and labour laws.
�The bank strike is not for the interest of the employees alone, the agitation is to protest policies of the central government and to protect the Indian banks from foreign controls,� added Dasgupta.
He further said that the clerical staff will get overtime allowance for working extra during the demonetisation period. But the officers will not get anything and in addition they will be losing a day’s salary due to the strike.”
New generation private banks like — ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and others — are not part of the union and continued to function normally but cheque clearances did not take place. Bank Union leaders didn’t made any efforts to shut the private banks.
The strike, however, has not affected cash withdrawals from the banks� ATMs across the city and state.
