Over 300 banks observe strike in Jamshedpur, services crippled

Mail News Service

Jamshedpur, Jan. 31 : Customers faced tough times as banking services was paralysedon the first day of the two-day nationwide bank�s strike called by banking union in support of their demands which include wage hike and five-day banking.

The strike affected nearly 350 public banks in the East Singhbhum district. Works like cheque clearance,  electronic cash transfer, issuance of draft, money deposit and  bank guarantee were disrupted.

The two�day strike has been called by United Forum of Banking Union (UFBU- the umbrella organisation of nine leading bank associations) in support of their demands while Sunday is a non-working day.

Worst sufferers are the salaried class awaiting credit of their salary on the first of every month. Significantly, UFBU had demanded amongst others 20 per cent wage hike on pay slip components and five day banking.

The strike call was given by  the United Forum of Bank Unions ( UFBU), an umbrella outfit of nine bank unions over Central government’s decision to merge banks with the former and privatisation of IDBI Bank by reducing the government capital leading to less than 49 per cent. The union also demanded that deliberate defaulters should be declared as criminal offenders.  

The cash in ATMs of several public sector banks got exhausted  by noon due putting in trouble  several customers who either failed to withdraw money or had to travel long to reach a private bank ATM for withdrawing money on Friday. Several ATMs ran out of cash causing hardship to common-man.

Although the new-generation private sector banks like HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank functioned normally, clearing and fund transfer operations suffered on account of the strike.

Normal banking operations, including cash transactions, cheque clearances, foreign exchange dealings were affected. The ATMs, which functioned normally on the first day of the strike, ran out of cash today hampering day-to-day activities.

“The strike was successful as all members went on protest on a wage cut. Government should come forward and discuss with us. The unions will be meeting shortly to talk on future course of action,” said an official.

Unions are protesting against reform measures such as the Banking Sector Laws Amendment Bill which seeks to remove restrictions on voting rights of foreign shareholders and increase voting rights of private investors in the PSBs.