Nationwide bank strike: Banking services impacted for 2nd day, customers face hurdles over cash withdrawals, deposits, cheque clearances

New Delhi: The two-day Nationwide bank strike continued on Tuesday leading to a lot of inconvenience being faced by customers on services such as cash withdrawals, deposits, cheque clearances, remittance services. 

However, branches of private sector lenders like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank are open as they are not part of the strike. Government transactions related to treasury as well as business transactions will also be impacted, news agency PTI has reported.

The 2-day bank strike has been called by nine unions of public sector banks (PSBs) in the country, opposing government's policy to privatise the lenders.

United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions, had given a strike call for March 15 and 16. Members of UFBU include All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA) and Bank Employees Confederation of India (BEFI).

Others are the Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF), Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC), National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO).

Unions on Monday said nearly 10 lakh staffers across the country have participated in the strike, terming it a "success".

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget speech for 2021-22 said the government will privatise two more public sector banks going forward.

The government has already privatised IDBI Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019, and has merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.

With PTI Inputs