The one-day strike resorted to by bank employees on Friday to highlight their charter of demands affected banking transactions in Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts.
Bankmen coming under the umbrella of United Forum of Bank Unions had given the call for a nationwide strike on Friday to protest alleged move to privatise public sector banks, implementing recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance with regard to the recovery of non-performing assets, withdrawing Bank Board Bureau, dropping the move to merge public sector banks in the name of consolidation among other issues.
The bank employees gathered in front of the State Bank of India Main Branch here and raised slogans highlighting their demands. Office-bearers of the various bank associations Tamilselvan, Anbalagan, Chokkalingam, Ravichandran and Nandakumar participated in the demonstrations.
Tiruvarur
More than 560 bank employees, including 178 women officials, boycotted work in 92 branches of 14 nationalised banks in Tiruvarur district. According to bank officials, banking transactions worth Rs. 2,500 crore would have been affected during the day.
“Though the strike call had been given wide publicity long before the actual date, many of us business customers were troubled due to the weekend and the month-end that followed the strike.
Bank unions could have thought of going on strike during mid-week rather than on a Friday so that customers are not hit harshly,” observed an entrepreneur K. Ramesh of Kumbakonam.
