THE Government is moving the Banking Laws Amendment Bill in the present session of the Parliament to pursue its announcement on privatisation of two public sector banks. United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) is opposing the privatisation of public sector banks (PSBs). In order to pursue this issue it has given a call for ‘Dharna’ in all State

capitals, informs Devidas Tuljapurkar, Convener, UFBU Maharashtra State.

United Forum of Bank Unions Maharashtra State Committee has organised ‘Dharna’ on December 4, 2021 commencing from 10 am at Azad Maidan, Mumbai wherein members of AIBEA, NCBE, AIBOC, BEFI, AIBOA, INBOC and INBEF will participate as representatives.

“The Government while taking decisions on the crucial issues like bank privatisation is not consulting stakeholders and various sections of the society. Instead it is bulldozing its decision just on the lines of farm laws,” he said.

All PSBs together have booked operative profit of Rs 50,863 core and net profit of Rs 17,132 crore. On the background there is no reason why public sector banks should be privatised? PSBs have booked their accounting profit along with social profit and implementation of Government schemes such as Jan Dhan, Jivan Suraksha, Jeevan Jyoti, crop loan, crop insurance, MUDRA, Swanidhi for street vendors, education loan etc., wherein share of PSBs is more than 90 per cent.

“If tomorrow the PSBs are privatised who will guarantee that the banks will not fall in line with Global Trust Bank or Yes Bank or Bank of Karad? In the process of privatisation Government is destabilising banking and in turn the economy. Banking relates to the lives of crores of people and privatisation of public sector banks will prove to be counterproductive,” he said.

UFBU appeals Government to desist from moving the bill amending banking laws otherwise UFBU will move in the field and approach customers, mobilise them and launch people’s movement. UFBU has already given call for two days nationwide strike on December 17 and 18, 2021. Eight lakh plus bank employees and officers spread out in over 60,000 bank branches of PSBs, old generation private sector banks and RRBs will be joining the strike.