Protesting against privatisation and merger of public banks, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has called for a nationwide strike on August 22.
“The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), which represents nine bank unions and employees of public and private sector banks, has called for a nation-wide strike on August 22 to press for various demands,” said C H Venkatachalam, General Secretary of AIBEA.
“Nearly 10 lakh employees would participate in the strike to protest plans to privatise public sector banks, merger and consolidation of banks and other demands including not to write-off non-performing assets (NPAs) in banks,” added Venkatachalam.
Some of the demands claimed by the unions comprise declaring the loan default as a criminal offense, as per the recommendations of Parliamentary Committee.
“Bad loans that were written off by State Bank of India group in the last five years stood at Rs 93,041 crore,” said Venkatachalam, citing example of some financial statistics.
According to official records, bad loans by public sector lender State Bank of India as of 2016-17 stands at Rs 20,339 crore and for the entire SBI Group the figure is Rs 27,574 crore.
“After the proposed stir on August 22, a massive rally would be conducted on September 15. Some time in October or November, continuous strike for two days would be conducted,” he said.
