10 lakh employees of 69 public sector banks are on strike against the government's decision to privatize. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in the budget that two more state-run banks would be privatized.
The government has also decided to sell shares in an insurance company. In the last four years, more than a dozen public sector banks have been merged, due to which thousands of jobs have gone to these banks.
All India Banks Employees Association general secretary CH Venkatachalam told BBC correspondent Faisal Mohammad Ali that the fight could be prolonged if the government remained firm on the stubbornness.
CH Venkatachalam said, "Their aim should be how to make public sector banks. How they can be made alive. We can cooperate in that. We can talk to them. But on the path of government privatization The fight will increase if we increase. Our fight may also be prolonged. We have now called for a strike of two days. After this we will do four days, ten days, we will do twenty days, we will do indefinite. It can happen. "
This strike of the employees of the public bank is against the decision of the government, in which it has been said that two government banks will sell their stake. The government sold its major stake in the Industrial Development Bank of India two years ago.
According to the news agency PTI, 14 state-owned banks have been merged in the last four years. In this, many banks were merged with State Bank of India, in the same way Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank were merged with Bank of Baroda.
In January 2019, LIC bought 51% stake of IDBI Bank, which was approved by the Union Cabinet on August 2018. LIC is still in government hands, so IDBI is not considered a completely private bank.
However, it has been speculated that LIC may gradually sell its stake in IDBI. The strike of two days has had an impact on ATM services, withdrawal of checks and cash from the bank and lending.
According to the Bank Employees Union, during the two-day strike, four crore checks, whose value was 30 thousand crores, could not be cleared. Unlike private banks, the service of public sector banks is also in rural areas and it has 80 to 85 crore account holders all over the country.
According to reports, meetings of bank employees union and officers were held in the first and second week of March to resolve the matter, but no solution could be found to the matter. There is a logic behind the privatization of public sector banks that they are going into losses and they have given many loans which will not be returned.
But CH Venkatachalam says that the truth is quite the opposite.
He told the BBC, "I can give you the figure of operating profit since 2009. 76 thousand crores, 99 thousand crores, one lakh 16 thousand crores, 1 lakh 21 thousand crores, 1 lakh 27 thousand crores, one lakh 38 thousand crores, One lakh 59 thousand crores, one lakh 49 thousand crores and last year it was one lakh 74 thousand crores, but the difficulty is that we have to give loans which are called bad loans. That is more than profit, so net loss or Losses happen. But whatever bad debts or bad loans are, those banks have inherited the banks. But if the government helps us to get this loan back, then there will be no loss. Take steps against those who have taken these loans. Anyway, if the public sector banks are privatized, then it will be these people who will buy these banks. "
Venkatachalam claims that on the one hand government banks are being sold saying that they are in loss, on the other hand the government is helping private banks to rebuild themselves with public money.
He said, "Relief is being given to private banks submerged by public money. Yes banks, for example, all know how poorly it was run and the bank sank but was told not to save it The State Bank had to help them and they were able to overcome this situation. A similar private bank, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, was drowned but handed over to another bank. "
However, it is not yet clear which are the two banks in which the government has said to reduce the stake. News agency Reuters has said that these could be any two of Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and Central Bank of India.
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