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Banking operations hit

NEW DELHI: Over nine lakh employees of public sector banks began a two-day nationwide strike on Wednesday against merger and consolidation in the banking sector and delay in settlement of issues like wage revision. However, major private sector banks remained open. The strike was called by the United Forum Bank Unions to protest also the government’s policy of privatisation. Banking transactions across the country and work in the stock exchanges were affected.

“The strike is complete across the country. It is a great success even in the interior parts of Tripura, Pondicherry and smaller States like Goa,” C.H. Venkatachalam of the All India Bank Employees Association told The Hindu. He said the strike had paralysed banking transactions, causing inconvenience to the public. But services in the foreign banks were not affected, he said. The other demands of the unions are another option for the pension scheme, termination of job outsourcing in the banking industry and immediate appointments in the class IV cadre.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) extended support to the strike by bank employees .

The Polit Bureau warned that in the light of the global financial crisis, such reforms would only make India more vulnerable.

The country, it said, had been able to stave off this crisis only because the UPA government could not go ahead with these measures owing to stiff resistance from the Left parties.