United Forum To Go On Stir Over Privatisation

Tarakeswar Chakraborti, general secretary of All India Bank Employees' Association, one of the nine members of the forum, said the real issue behind the functioning of the public sector banks is recovery of bad loans.

"These bad loans are euphemistically called non-performing assets and is almost at Rs 60,000 crore. It has been created due to the unholy nexus between political parties, captains of industry and the top management of banks," Chakraborti said.

The forum also strongly protested the proposed voluntary retirement scheme. Chakraborti said the move is aimed at downsizing the work force and then deunionise them.

"To fight these twin attacks, we have decided to organise a one-day strike by the end of this month. If the government introduces the privatisation bill in Parliament then the strike would be within the next 72 hours," he said.

 

S R Sengupta, general secretary of All India Bank Officers' Confederation, said that there was no recruitment in the Indian public sector banks since 1985.

"At present, the staff strength of nationalised banks is around 10 lakhs and in between 2001 and 2005, one third of it would retiring. So there will be dearth of trained manpower in the banking sector," Sengupta said.