Taking strong exception to the proposed move by the Centre to introduce the Banking Laws (Amendments) Bill 2021 in the current session of Parliament, C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), said the Bill was aimed at accelerating the process of privatising profit-making public sector banks.
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Speaking to reporters here on Sunday, he said public sector banks had been acting as catalysts in the economic development of the country, in general, and for the underprivileged sections of society and backward regions of the country, in particular. The PSBs had recorded multi-fold increase in terms of number of branches and volume of business since 1969. They were making huge operating profits despite serving extensively on uplift of underprivileged sections. The only issue being confronted by the PSBs was that of huge non-performing assets (NPAs) in which the major share was that of big corporates. But, the Narendra Modi government was projecting that the PSBs were not doing well and, hence to ensure better efficiency, the banks had to be privatised.
Besides contributing to nation-building, Mr. Vekatachalam said the PSBs had time and again been necessitated to bail out ailing private sector banks in the past. State Bank of India bailed out Yest Bank recently. While the PSB were doing well, several private banks were struggling. But the Centre was making frantic efforts to privatise PSBs. The proposed Banking Laws (Amendments) Bill 2021 should be withdrawn immediately.
To register the strong protest against the Centre’s privitisation move, AIBEA had called for an all India bank strike on December 16 and 17. More than 10 lakh bank employees, including officials, would participate in it, he added.
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