Our Bureau

Hyderabad , Feb. 14

AT the call of All India Union Bank Employees Association (AIUBEA) and All India Union Bank Employees Federation (AIUBEF), the Union Bank employees would observe full day stay-out strike on Wednesday with a view to register their opposition to the management's proposal to divest Government equity holding through a follow-on public offering.

In a press release here, the AP Union Bank Employees Association General Secretary, Mr K. Bosu Babu, and the AP Union Bank Employees Union Generation Secretary, Mr M.V. Madhava Rao, said privatisation brings about a harmful shift from mass to class banking.

As a result of this, banking services in rural and remote areas would be adversely affected and provision of credit to agriculture and other priority sectors would become a casualty.

According to them, Union Bank, which recently crossed the milestone of Rs 1-lakh-crore of business, has a decent capital adequacy ratio of 12 per cent, which is much above the benchmark nine per cent prescribed by the apex bank.

As a result of the follow-on public offering, the Government of India holding in the bank would come down to 55.43 per cent from the existing level of 60.85 per cent.

Citing the examples of private banks such as Krishi Bank, Prudential Bank and Charminar Bank, the Union representatives said many a private bank got liquidated endangering lifetime savings of several depositors.

In fact, these examples give the message that financial institutions should continue to remain in the public sector to extend protection to the savings of people and deploy these funds for planned economic development, they said.

Citing the example of Union Bank itself, they said the bank took over failed private banks such as Belgaum Bank, Miraj State Bank and Sikkim Bank to protect the interests of depositors.

"It is irony that the bank that saved the victims of the private banks is now being sought to be privatised," the bank unions said.

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