The nation-wide bank strike today, called today by the United Forum of Banking Unions, the umbrella body of trade unions in the banking sector, was total in West Bengal.
All public sector, private and foreign banks were closed in the state while most of the ATMs ran dry shortly after the strike began.
Only a handful of ATMs located at hospitals, airport and railway stations remained operational.
West Bengal convenor of UFBU Siddhartha Khan had said that the government was ushering in privatisation and consolidation in the Indian banking sector under the garb of reforms.
He said that the Bank Board Bureau had been formed to bring all public sector banks under a banking investment company and get the government's share in them below 50 per cent.
Gross NPAs of all public sector banks rose to Rs 6.83 lakh crore, which was also a major cause for concern and the banking system's financial health was suffering due to provisioning.
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