The State Committee of the Bank Employees’ Federation of India has accused the Union government and the Reserve Bank of India of failing in currency management, which had caused the present liquidity crisis following the demonetisation of high value currency notes on November 8.
The federation will launch nation-wide protest action from November 29 against the government decision, said said T.Narendran and S.S. Anil of the federation here in a press release on Thursday.
The federation leaders said that it would take at least six months for the currency supply situation to normalise. They felt that there was no justification in not allowing cooperative banks and societies in Kerala to exchange old currency for the new ones.
They said that bank employees, who had risen to the occasion posed by the present situation, had not been able to attend to their routine duties such as accepting deposits and disbursing loans over the past fortnight. While the employees were now engaged only in currency exchange, it was evident that there was not enough currency notes for the process.
The situation was a setback to the production and service sectors and the GDP growth would slow down on account of the currency shortage, the federation leaders said. The loss of working days will add to the misery of the people in the coming days, they said.
The crisis had also plunged bank workers into anxiety. A total of 70 persons, including 11 bank workers, had died during these days. It was an indication of the seriousness of the situation and the government must come forward to compensate the families of those who died, the leaders said.
