 Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 16: A massive demonstration of bank employees was held at Shalamar Road in front of Punjab National Bank today, under the banner of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) since there was no positive development in the conciliation meeting.
It has been decided to go ahead with a two-day long strike starting today to oppose privatization of public sector banks.
The demonstration was addressed by Arun Kumar Gupta, General Secretary Jammu Province Bank Employees Federation who informed the gathering that the reason for two days continuous nationwide bank strike by one million bank employees against the government decision of privatization of two public sector banks as well as bringing Banking Amendment Law Bill in this session of Parliament. Com Gupta said that there is a wrong perception and mistaken information that public sector banks are not earning profits and are incurring losses. But the fact is that Public Sector Banks are earning huge operating profits. Instead of further strengthening public sector banking, the present policies are aimed to weaken PSBs, by starving them of the required capital, human resources, allowing private hands through disinvestment and proposed privatization moves. Weakening our Public Sector Banks is unwarranted, unjustified and is a regressive step, he added.
Com Ashwani Pradhan, General Secretary, AIBOA (J&K Chapter) also addressed and demanded strengthening of public sector banks by adequate infusion of capital, human resources and strengthened statutory framework to recover the stressed assets. Today bank employees strike is grand success in entire J&K and tomorrow will also be a grand success, he added.
Those who also addressed the gathering included Comrades Tara Singh, Yogesh Kumar, A.B Khajuria R.K Bamba, Harminder Singh, T.K Tikoo, Ganesh Kumar, Jatinder Kumar, Harbans Lal, Kewal Kumar, Avinash Sharma, Sahil Gupta, R.K Bhat and others. |
