Two day bank strike affects Bihar

Patna, Sep 24: Banking services in the State along with the rest of the country, came to a grinding halt on Wednesday, Sep 24 in response to a 48-hour nationwide strike, called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), a conglomerate of nine major bank unions.

Claiming a 'total success' of the strike on the first day, Bihar Provincial Bank Employees Association General Secretary Rameswar Prasad said more than one million employees of all public sector and regional rural banks in the country participated in the strike, called to protest the Centre's plan for complete privatisation of the banking sector in phases.

Congratulating the bank employees in the state for their 'overwhelming response' to the strike call and staging dharnas, Mr Prasad severely criticised the Union government for its alleged programme to hand over various functions of public sector banks to private agencies, besides effecting a complete ban on new recruitments.

''This will lead to a complete collapse of the country's banking sector,'' Mr Prasad felt and urged the government to immediately reverse its stand.

Incidentally, this is the second countrywide bank strike this year to press for the employees' demand despite causing severe inconvenience to millions of customers across the nation.

UNI