Banking services in the city were paralysed on Friday as nearly 85 per cent of banking staff stayed away from work to take part in the nation-wide strike against the Centre.
However, essential services such as buses, trains and other transport services remained unaffected. Schools, colleges and commercial establishments and State government offices functioned as usual.
3,500 court arrestA statement from the Labour Progressive Front, affiliated to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, said more than 30 lakh people took part in the Bharat Bandh and about 1 lakh people were arrested. In Chennai, nearly 3,500 people, including 349 women, were arrested, police sources said.
“Nearly 85 per cent of the workforce in banks went on strike. Banking transactions were hit as there was no facility for depositing and withdrawing cash. About 8 lakh cheques worth Rs.6, 200 crore were not cleared from Chennai grid,” said C.H.Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association.
Bank employees said the government should withdraw proposals to privatise banks and merger of smaller banks with the larger ones. Associations would meet again on September 8 to decide on the further course of action.
Employees of State Co-operative and private banks joined the strike called by trade unions across the country. Over 60,000 members of different trade unions were taken into custody, police sources said. They were released later in the evening.
At Guindy railway station, over 100 trade union members blocked the track and prevented the movement of two EMUs. Train services were affected between 10.40 a.m. and 11.05 a.m., railway sources said. However, no major untoward incident was reported in Chennai.
Post offices in the city were deserted as over 90 per cent of the employees took part in the strike. More than 8,000 employees of Life Insurance Corporation of India also participated in the strike in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
Members of the National Federation of Postal Employees and Federation of National Postal Organisation staged a demonstration at Park Town. P. Mohan, president, All India Postal Employees Union, Group-C, Tamil Nadu said “Delivery operations were hit in post offices as about 2,500 employees participated in the strike. We also demand that the proposal to outsource booking service of mails be dropped.”
Cases were booked against over 2,500 people for unlawful assembly, city police said.
