Sbi Strike Cripples Operations, Nationwide Stir Threatened

The impasse over the suspension of three State Bank of India officials in the CRB Capital Markets imbroglio continued for the second day yesterday with all SBI officers in the Mumbai circle abstaining from work in protest.

Plans have been drawn up by the SBI Officers Association to deal with the situation and a high-level executive committee meeting of the association is scheduled to be held in Calcutta on June 17. If the deadlock has not been broken by then, the issue will be taken up for further discussion and a future course of action formulated.

Senior officials of the Association have said that the stir will be intensified if the management does not exonerate the officials. This could escalate into a nationwide stir.

 

The three SBI officials who were suspended R L Walker, chief manager; V N Patil, deputy manager; and M M Narang, deputy manager were employees of the Mumbai main branch.

The officials did not rule out the possibility of moving a petition in the Bombay High Court to obtain a stay on the suspension orders.

So far, 130 branches and 2,500 officers have gone on strike, which has paralysed operations in the Mumbai main branch, the services branch, commercial branch, securities services branch and the CAG branch. A nationwide stir would put all the 13 circles out of peration.

However, SBI Officers Asso-ciation (Mumbai Circle) president V S Samanth said, Our strike is not going to affect finalisation of financial statements.

Samant told Business Standard, The management has said the officials have been suspended because of violation of systems and procedures. Given that no such system or procedure exists we construe the action of the management as more in the nature of finding a scapegoat.

Call rates zoom as SBI stays away

The absence of the SBI from the inter-bank money market saw the call money rates shooting up to over 10.5 per cent. The call rates opened in the region of 9 per cent and escalated once the market realised that the officers strike was continuing for the second day.

However, there was no panic in the market as there were still sufficient funds available to meet the borrowing requirements of primary dealers and banks.

That apart, the cheques issued on SBI, Mumbai circle, were not cleared due to the strike. Sources say that this has created problems for a lot of corporates and individuals.