Date:13/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/13/stories/2006081304031500.htm

Business

Avoid Tier II Capital: AIBOC

Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Shantha Raju, general secretary of All India Bank officers' Confederation (AIBOC), has asked the Government to infuse more capital and increase its stake instead of forcing public sector banks to go in for Tier II and Hybrid Capital.

Addressing a farewell meeting organised by the State Committee of the AIBOC, he said that foreign institutional investors and industrial houses were fast taking control over the nationalised banks by subscribing to Tier II Capital. It was in effect privatisation through backdoor. He urged the Government to immediately initiate steps to correct the situation.

Elaborating the services being rendered by bank officers in nation building activities, he said that even in the remotest rural places, officers were working without regulation in working hours. Even then their very genuine demands like second option for pension, compassionate appointments and recruitment in existing one lakh vacancies were not being considered. Instead, the Government was trying to de-unionise by resorting to outsourcing. The farewell meeting was presided over by P.B. Thomas, State president of the confederation.