The State Banks’ Staff Union (SBSU) and the SBI Officers’ Association (SBIOA) have condemned violent form of demonstrations organised within banks across the State.
In a joint statement, SBIOA Kerala circle and SBSU Kerala circle leaders V. Muralidharan and A. Jayakumar alleged that DYFI activists barged into many SBI branches across the State in protest against the waiving of of high-value loans.
‘Fleeing for safety’
According to them, windowpanes were broken in the Koothuparamba branch and a woman constable was injured. In Thiruvananthapuram, activists forced themselves into the local head office and created panic among the employees who had to run for safety. “The right to peaceful demonstration on whatever grounds in justified and we, as trade unions, support the same. However, using violence against any organisation and its employees by politicians for gaining political mileage is totally wrong,” they said.
They sought to emphasise that the benefactors of the high-value loans were not exempted from repaying them. Such loans were moved to ‘Advances under Collection’ account to clean the balance sheet of the bank. The legal proceedings for attaching their assets and other necessary steps for recovering the debt are still continuing and will remain so till full recovery, it has been stated.
