Bank strike: Banking services to be impacted for THESE two-days this month, check details here

The Bank union will also start a series of other agitational programmes if the government does not give up the idea of privatisation of the banks.

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New Delhi: The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) will go on a a two-day strike from December 16 to protest against the government's plan to privatise public sector banks.

Sanjay Das, general secretary of All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), told news agency PTI that besides the two-day strike, a series of other agitational programmes will be held if the government does not give up the idea of privatisation of the banks.

In the budget speech of 2021, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that two public sector banks will be privatised during the current fiscal. 

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.

UFBU is an umbrella organisation of nine bank unions. 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).

Das said that this move to privatise PSBs will hurt the priority sectors of the economy and also credit flow to self-help groups and to the rural economy.

The proposed move is not based on sound economic logic but is purely a political decision to hand over the banks to "crony capitalists", he said.

According to him, 70 per cent of the country's total deposits are with the public sector banks and handing them over to private capital will put the common man's money deposited with these banks into jeopardy.

With PTI Inputs