Central Bank Employees to observe day-long strike on July 24

Mumbai, July 23 (UNI) The Rs 850 crore capital raising programme of Central Bank of India (CBI) got a jolt today with two of its employee organizations, All India Central Bank Officer's Association (AICBOA) and All India Central Bank Employee's Federation (AICBEF), calling for a day-long strike on July 24.

The strike call is likely to take an adverse impact on the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the Bank, which will open for subscriptions tommorrow.

''The Non Performing Assets (NPA) of the Bank, as on March 31, is Rs 2,572 crore. Even if five percent of the recovery is achieved, there would have no need for the bank to dilute its equity capital,'' said S Nagarajan, General Secretary, AICBOA in a statement.

Protestors also alleged that the government of India, in the guise of financial sector reforms, has resorted to the dilution of equity in public sector Banks.

''This is the first step towards the privatization of public sector banks so as to enable them to hand over the same to the private corporate sector,'' he alleged.

The issue, which has set a price band of Rs 85 to Rs 102 will close on July 27.

UNI