Banking strike to cripple services

Sinha said the unions were “going ahead with their strike and we are going ahead with our Bill. I am prepared to talk to anybody in this regard because I am convinced that their fears are unfounded,” he said.

Meanwhile, the union leaders announced that 10.5 lakh employees would strike work on Wednesday in protest against the privatisation moves of the Government,

Later, briefing reporters, Special Secretary (Banking) Devi Dayal also said the Government had made all efforts to make the unions understand the imperative of dilution of the Government’s stake in PSU banks. “To maintain the capital adequacy ratio, the banks need to increase their equity. In the process, the Government’s stake will be diluted,” he added.µAccording to the Delhi convener of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the umbrella group of nine unions, V K Gupta, as soon as the Government introduced the Bill for carrying out amendments for reducing Government equity from over 51 per cent to 33 per cent, the bank unions would resort to another one-day strike.

Meanwhile, the general secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association, Tarakeswar Chakraborti, said “bank managements are deploying intimidatory tactics to force employees to opt for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) through threats of disciplinary actions, transfers and reducing retirement age from 60 to 58.”

Many bank unions today held country-wide demonstrations against the Government moves. Employees of nationalised banks demonstrated at several places here today ahead of their strike tomorrow.