The Lok Sabha to-night [August 4, New Delhi] passed the Banks Nationalisation Bill sitting three extra hours in the day to vote the remaining 21 of its 27 clauses and the three schedules and to give a final third reading to a measure that has been described as a personal triumph for the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The Swatantra and Jan Sangh benches were all but empty at the historic moment because of a walk out staged earlier in protest against the House taking up the third reading at the late hour. A solitary Jan Sangh member in saffron robes did not join the protest. Besides nationalising 14 top Indian banks with deposits exceeding Rs. 50 crores, the Bill seeks to introduce workers’ participation for the first time in the management of public sector agencies. Amendments adopted to-day to the provisions of the Bill give representation of bank employees in the transitory advisory boards to bank custodians as well as in the boards of directors to be formed after the nationalised banks are reorganised by the Union Government in consultation with the Reserve Bank.
