MUMBAI, NOV 11: More than 20 unions of banks and insurance industries representing over 1.3 million employees and officers will stage a massive demonstration in front of Parliament on November 29, the opening day of the winter session.The union leaders who met Bimal Jalan, the Reserve Bank of India governor and discussed issues like Verma committee report on weak banks, privatisation of nationalised banks and opening up of insurance sector in Mumbai in the last two days, said that they were united to fight the government's move by initiating nation-wide one day strike on the day following the discussions on Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) Bill on the floor of the Parliament.Further, bankers would go for two days or more strikes in the budget session of Parliament particularly when the banks privatisation bill is likely to come up.Addressing a press conference jointly, All India Bank Officer's Confederation (AIBOC) president S R Sengupta and All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary Tarakeswar Chakraborty alleged that the government's decision to liberalise the banking and insurance sectors was an attempt to destroy the economy of the nation and the people would have to pay heavily in future. ``As responsible leaders of the industry, we will play our role in befitting manner'', Chakraborty said.For the revival of the weak banks, both of them suggested that the government must empower the banks legally to recover its funds from the borrowers and should not make an attempt to pass on the blame to the bank employees and collect money from the tax payers of the nation to capitalise the proposed Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC) for buying out the non-performing assets (NPAs) of the bank. The ARC will not be effective unless the legal system is amended and make the willful defaulters of bank loans as a criminal offence.Of the total Rs 50,000 crore bad loans in the banking sector, the industrial houses account for about Rs 30,000 crore.
