Bankers on strike, banks paralysed

PATNA: Services like cash deposits and withdrawal from branches and cheque clearances in the state remained paralysed during the daylong strike in all public and private banks on Tuesday. The strike was called by the

United Forum of Bank Unions

(UFBU) in support of their demands to fix accountability of top executives in the wake of mounting bad loans, compensation to employees and officers for extra hours they put in following demonetisation in November and early initiation of next wage revision, criminal action against wilful defaulters and shelve the proposed labour reforms.

A number of ATMs also ran out of cash in the morning itself. Gayatri Devi (90), who had come with her grandson Neeraj Prasad Verma on a motorbike from Phulwarisharif to withdraw her pension from a bank near Gandhi Maidan returned disappointed. “We were not aware about the bank strike. Common people like us land in trouble due to certain issues between the banks and the government,” said Neeraj.

Retired government employee Gopal Prasad Chaurasia had come all the way from Katihar to submit his life certificate at a public sector bank. “I was not aware about the strike and have no option but to stay here and complete the formalities tomorrow,” said Chaurasia.

All India Bank Employees Association president (Bihar circle) Bharat Bhusan, who is posted at Phulwarisharif branch of

Union Bank of India

(UBI), said, “The 74 branches and 73 ATMs of the

UBI

in Bihar remained closed. The bank has a daily transaction of Rs80-90 crore in the state.”

State Bank of India Officers Association general secretary (Patna circle) Ghanshyam Prasad Srivastava said, “Total 6,800 SBI branches were closed. We got full support of all the employees.”