Banks to open today after four days

Aurangabad, March 16:

Bank officials and employees spontaneously participated in the nationwide strike on Tuesday. This was the second day of the strike called against the privatization of banks. Banks will open on Wednesdays, four days after closure. Therefore, banks might witness a large crowd of citizens.

The government has announced the privatization of IDBI and two public sector banks. As a mark of protest, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) went on strike on March 15 and 16. Instead of holding demonstrations, due to Covid-19, the bank officials distributed leaflets to the citizens informing them about the consequences of the privatization of public sector banks. In all, 10,000 leaflets were distributed in two days, said Devidas Tuljapurkar, convenor UFBU.

Online transactions preferred

As banks remained closed for four days, citizens turned to online financial transactions. But the cheque clearance remained stalled. Many bank ATMs were also dry of cash. The cheque will now be cleared from Wednesday.

Suggestions made by unions

Tuljapurkar said the unions have suggested a number of improvements in the functioning of the banking industry. If implemented, the banking industry will be profitable. It will also protect the interests of the common man. These making the names of big defaulters public, declaring it a crime to default on loans and banning defaulters from contesting elections.