June 13: Members of the State Bank of India Employees Union barged into the cash counter at MTNL's Colaba office today and prevented the cashiers from doing their work. The employees, who went on strike yesterday protesting the arrest of senior SBI officials for their alleged involvement in the CRB scam, entered the MTNL office around 11.00 am and asked the MTNL staff not to collect money from customers.MTNL accepts only cheques and not cash. The SBI has an extension counter in the MTNL office, which is open from 10.00 am to 1.30 pm, through which people can pay their bills in cash. ``The problem started when we deputed our staff to collect cash from the customers,'' said Sholapurkar, a senior official at MTNL. He said MTNL would extend the date for paying bills due to the ongoing SBI strike. But S Kulkarni, a senior member of the SBI union, maintained, ``The MTNL deputed its staff to man the counter without our consent. This is the reason the trouble took place.''Outraged by the union's interference, people shouted and banged the glass doors near the counter. Ten minutes later, around five or six of the SBI union members barged their way into the cash counter and abused the MTNL staff for not joining their call for strike. For more than an hour, people were waiting outside, hoping the problem would be solved. ``The union members have shown their uncivilised character through this episode. "They cannot expect the public to suffer for their problems,'' said a visibly upset Raju, who had to go back for the second day without paying his telephone bill. ``How does it matter to the SBI people if the MTNL staff work to our convenience,'' asked another lady.``To avoid such problems, MTNL should also have a separate counter to accept cash,'' felt many. However, an MTNL official said, ``Starting a cash counter is not an overnight affair, but a policy decision.''Meanwhile, business activities in SBI offices in Mumbai remained cramped for the second day today as over 4,000 officers in local head offices and 130 branches were on strike. According to SBI officers federation sources, all the leaders of the federation have arrived in the city to take stock of the situation and were likely to meet the SBI chairman V S Verma tonight to find out a settlement. The federation leaders and the SBI management were called by the assistant labour commisioner today for a hearing and it was decided to hold a meeting between the management and the agitating officers for an amicable settlement in the near future. Unless the State Bank management agreed to withdraw the suspension order served on the officers on Tuesday night, sources said, the federation would continue its strike which would be extended to the entire Maharashtra and Goa circle from Monday.
