Financial transactions at public sector banks continued to remain paralysed in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh for the second day on account of two day strike observed by bank employees under the banner of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) demanding wage hike, compassionate appointments etc.
The strike led to hampering of commercial activities in these states besides causing innumerable problems to the routine bank customers.
Although customers at some places complained of non-disbursal of cash at Automated Teller Machines (ATM) but bankers maintained that machines had sufficient cash to meet the requirements of customers for two days.
To effectively deal with this situation, Reserve Bank of India has even set up a Mini Clearing House here to facilitate the clearing of the cheques of the private banks which are not participating in the strike as the clearing house set up at Punjab National Bank remained non-functional because of the strike. Yesterday, RBI received about 3,200 cheques, which were cleared by the mini clearing house.
