UP banks join nationwide strike, services hit

Lucknow, Sep 24 (UNI) Over 15,000 branches of 55 nationalised banks in Uttar Pradesh today joined the two-day strike, called by the Federation of the Bank Employees and Officers Association in the country.

The strike was total and successful, claimed the agitating bank employees and officials here. In UP, there would be a loss of around Rs 5,000 crore and at the national level of Rs 50,000 crore due to the strike.

SBI Staff Association president K K Singh said here that the strike had been called to force the government to implement the long pending demands of the employees and officers.

The strike by the members of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) was organised to protest against the merger of banks, acquisition, privatisation, outsourcing and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in public sector banks. Other demands included wage revision and optional pension scheme.

The banks officials maintained that the ATM service were functioning, but the service was likely to be affected by tomorrow due to the shortage of cash.

UNI MB JAS GT BST1325