The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Banking operations paralysed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Banking operations paralysed

By our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI. Aug 24. Banking operations were paralysed in the temple towns of Tirupati and Tirumala with the entire banking staff, including officers, boycotting duty as part of the nationwide strike called by UFBU.

Demonstrations held

Bank employees bonging to various unions like AIBEA, NCBE, AIBOC, AIBOA, BEFI, INBEF, INBOC, NOBU and NOBO held demonstrations in front of their respective bank branches demanding pay hike and denouncing the `anti-employee' policies pursued by the Government.

A UFBU release strongly condemned the adamant attitude of the IBA in not finalising the bipartite agreement even 22 months after the previous agreement lapsed. Though it would cost the banking sector hardly Rs.3,000 crores to effect the wage hike being demanded by bankmen all over the country, the IBA was rejecting it even while earmarking Rs.24,000 crores for the fiscal 2004 to write-off bad debts which were loans evaded by `big shots and industrial houses', the release regretted.

Plea to book defaulters

Bankmen advised the Government to take urgent steps to collect the over-all bad debts and the written-off loans of the public sector banks which accounted for Rs. 1.3 lakh crores, either by filing criminal cases against the defaulters or by confiscating their properties, freezing their accounts and taking such other punitive action.

CUDDAPAH: Banking operations were hit in Cuddapah district with all nationalised bank branches remaining closed. Addressing the bank staff, who held a demonstration in front of the SBI main branch here, the leader of the National Confederation of Bank Employees, Kiran Kumar Reddy, demanded wage revision and recalled that the previous wage agreement, that lasted till October 2002, was limited to 12.25 per cent on the ground that banks were in a crisis then.

Almost all the banks were reaping profits now and offering a wide range of services due to computerisation of branches and hence wage revision was imperative, Mr. Reddy maintained. He demanded withdrawal of the move to effect all-India transfers.

Pension option

The Banking Employees Federation of India Central Executive member, T.V. Ramana, charged the Indian Banks Association with being adamant on the demand for wage revision. He demanded that the Indian Banks Association give pension option again, in view of the cut in interest on provident fund, and claimed that nearly 70 per cent of employees did not opt for pension in the past when the PF interest was 12 per cent. He also demanded compassionate appointments.

LIC staff stage dharna

LIC employees staged a demonstration in front of the LIC divisional office here on Tuesday, in support of the striking bank employees. The Insurance Corporation Employees Union divisional president, A. Raghunatha Reddy, and the general secretary, B.V.S. Raju, demanded expeditious wage revision for bank employees and taking up of recruitment in view of growing banking services. They criticised the UPA Government for being indifferent to employees' demands like its predecessor, the NDA.

Nellore: Banking and financial activities were crippled in Nellore by the strike. For the people, already reeling under the impact of the four-day old strike by truckers, the bank strike has only added one more impediment in their daily life.

KURNOOL: In Kurnool,work in about 50 branches in the city and 300 branches across the district came to a standstill. The employees gathered at the Canara Bank here and raised slogans. The union leaders, V.G.S. Karunakar and Rajendraprasad addressed the employees.

The Rayalaseema Grameena Bank and the District Cooperative Central Bank, which are not members of Indian Banks Association, were exempted from the strike.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh