Banking services were partially disrupted today as a section of employees owing allegiance to Left unions stayed away from work for a day to protest the proposed merger of State Bank of Indore with its parent State Bank of India (SBI).
"The response to the strike has been very encouraging as cash transactions across the country were adversely affected. About 4 lakh bank employees of public sector and old generation private sector banks observed the strike," claimed C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA -- one of the two unions which had given the strike call.
Employees under the banner of All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA) joined the strike. However, employees of the largest bank SBI refrained from the strike.
Cheque clearing operations of the bank were also affected and ATMs in parts eastern region and Kerala ran out of cash, he claimed.
He said there should be no consolidation in the public sector banks in the name of creating global-sized banks.
In a bid to avoid inconvenience to customers, many public and private sector banks had informed in advance that the normal functioning at bank's branches may get affected in view of the strike call by the two bank unions.
PSU banks control about 70 per cent of the banking operations in the country.
