Day long national wide strike of public sector bank employees hamper operations in Gujarat

Ahmedabad/Vadodara/Surat/Rajkot:

Banking operations in the public sector banks across Gujarat were badly hampered today owing to the day long nationwide strike called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine prominent public sector bank unions to protest against the government’s move to merge banks and pressing for their other demands.

Though routine bank business including deposits and withdrawal in the banks, cheque clearings, RTGS and NEFT transaction were hit yet the online transactions were done uninterrupted.

Private sector banks (HDFC, Axis, Kotak Mahindra, ICICI etc) remained away from the strike and continued their operations normally however their cheque clearings with the public sector banks were also affected.

Public sector bank employees took out rallies in various cities including Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jundagadh, Jamnagar, Surat etc. The banks across banks were estimated to see the hampering of business to the tune of hundreds of crores of rupees owing to the strike.

A bank employee said that apart from opposing the consolidation move, their other demands were about not writing off the non-performing assets of corporate loans and passing the burden to customers, payment of overtime benefits for additional work during demonetization period and making wilful default of loans a criminal offence.