Guwahati, August 25 (MExN): The Bank Employees’ Federation North Eastern Region, in its virtual meet held on August 24, opposed the move to privatize public sector banks and demanded further improvement in 11th Bipartite Settlement.
“The Federation feels that skeletons stored in the cupboard of recent bank mergers are falling off,” the federation stated in a press release on August 25.
Pointing out that the bank mergers was formalized in April 2020, while the entire country was under lock-down, it said that while the declared objective was to strengthen public sector banking sectors, “If media reports are any indication, the government is set to privatize several PSBs.”
Highlighting the banking scenario in the country before the Government of India nationalized the banking sectors in 1969; it said that after nationalization, “Indian banking sectors expanded manifold, spreading to nook and corner of the country, benefitting agriculture, SSI and small business, other priority sectors.”
“Jobs in lakhs have been created setting the wheels of economic progress,” it said.
Post nationalization, it said that banking was further expanded in previously unbanked areas like the northeast region and economic development in the region began.
The federation further alleged that “privatization is a design to allow the big corporates who swindled public money to go scot free and handover the public property to those looters in the name of stake sales.”
It denounced the “spree of privatization” of Public Sector Undertakings like Airport, Railways, Coal, etc., and resolved to fight the privatization attempt in banks.
Further, it urged the people of the region to strongly oppose the privatization of banks and called upon cross section of bank employees to stimulate public opinion against privatization to save national economy.
The meeting also discussed the developments the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with regard 11th bipartite settlement, and unanimously resolved to begin vigorous campaigns for improvement in the settlement.
