Bankers' Club

In demand of a solution to the problems caused due to demonetisation and recovery of bad loans Bank Unions have called strike on 7th Feb 2017.

All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) and the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) have issued a joint statement calling strike on 7th February. It says that entire banking sector was plunged in turmoil due to demonetisation issues.

Read: 5 days working for banks 

Two main issues on which strike is called are solutions for problems caused by demonetisation drive and recovery of bad loans.

But you need to wait till 6th February, because the strike may be called off till that time if talks happens with bank managements/ government and they give assurance for a possible solution.

“But even now we find that there is acute shortage of cash supply to the banks with the result that bank branches are not able to honour even the restricted payments… Most of the ATMs are still non-functional and even where they are functioning, there is no cash to dispense” Bank employees’ unions state.

The unions also alleged that there was no transparency in supply of cash to banks.

“While most of our banks are still suffering from short supply of cash, one cannot understand how few private banks get uninterrupted cash supply!” said BEFI’s general secretary Pradip Biswas.

“It was reported that when branches were starved of cash supply, huge new currency notes were found with some big people. But there is no answer as to how such huge cash has gone out of the banks” said AIBEA’s general secretary CH Venkatachalam.

“No action is being taken against the increasing menace of huge bad loans in the banks except provisions from profits, write-offs and desperate sale of NPAs (non-performing assets)” said AIBOA general secretary S Nagarajan.