A clearing of over Rs 6,000 crore will come to a standstill for four days in Saurashtra-Kutch with employees of nationalised banks going on a total strike across the country. The staff will refrain from duty on Thursday and Friday to demand a 20 per cent salary raise. But bank activities will be affected till Monday due to the weekend. However,the co-operative and private banks,which are not supporting the strike call given by the United Federation of Bank Union (UFBU),will function normally. Rajkot,on an average,sees a daily clearing of Rs 125-150 crore. The Saurashtra-Kutch region,including eight districts,registers a total clearing of around Rs 3,000 crore per day. With Wednesday also being a bank holiday due to Rakshabandhan,any deposits made on Tuesday will get cleared only on Monday. A total of 7,000 employees,including class I to IV,in the region have extended their support to the strike call. In Rajkot,union members will stage demonstrations at State Bank of Indias main branch on Thursday and Friday. According to A P Antani,Secretary,Gujarat Bank Workers Association,bank employees had demanded a 20 per cent raise in their salary. On June 10,the Indian Bankers Association (IBA) agreed to give a 17.5 per cent raise after negotiations. However,on June 17,IBA declared that the raise will be of only 15 per cent. IBA had called UFBU members for meetings on August 4 to inform that the salary raise has further been brought down to 13 per cent. Following this,the UFBU decided to go on a two-day strike.
