Patna, Aug 04: Bankers across Bihar are observing "black day" today, before they go on a state-wide strike tomorrow, in protest against the delay in recovery of a kidnapped bank manager and the eight year-old son of a bank officer, both of whom remain untraced after more than a week. They wore black badges as part of their agitation to press for immediate release of Punjab National Bank manager R Sharma and Siddhant Parmar, the 8-year-old nephew of Sugarcane Minister Raghvendra Pratap Singh and son of a State Bank of India officer Sanjay Singh, both kidnapped more than a week ago.
Staff of around 2300 commercial and private banks and the RBI in Bihar would strike work tomorrow on the call of United Forum of Banks Union (UFBU) to intensify their agitation against delay in tracing Sharma and Parmar, Aniruddh Akhauri, president, Bihar SBI Officers Association said here. The bankers had earlier struck work in Patna and Rohtas on July 28 in protest against the kidnappings.
Akhauri criticised the state government for turning a "deaf ear" towards their agitation and demand for security.
"The state government appears least bothered about our issues. Nobody has approached us for talks to listen to our demands," the SBI Officers Association president lamented. While Siddhant was kidnapped while he was waiting for his school bus near Jagdeo Path here on July 24, the PNB branch manager R D Sharma was abducted by unidentified armed miscreants in Rohtas district the next day. Bureau Report