Banking services are affected on Friday as around 10 lakh bankers of 40 public sectors, and state-run banks joined the strike called by the United Forum of Banks Unions (UFBU). According to a union leader, the protest is against the merger of the State Bank of India and its associated banks. As IANS reported, on Tuesday the UFBU held a meeting with the Indian Banks Association regarding the issue, but it was of no use.

So, the union opposes the governments’ decision to merge five SBI associate banks with SBI. The Associated Banks of SBI are State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Patiala (SBP), State Bank of Mysore (SBM) and State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), bankers called for a one-day strike across the nation on Friday.

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C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) said the protest is also against the decision of privatisation of IDBI Bank.  This strike affects the banking operations such as deposits, withdrawals and cheque clearance.

“The All India State Bank Officers’ Federation and the All India State Bank of India Staff Federation are members of UFBU. Thus, it is likely that the bank will also be impacted to some extent by the said strike calls,” says a statement released by SBI.

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“The strike is on. We are not aware of any case filed by the banks or the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to restrain the nine unions of UFBU (United Forum of Bank Unions) from striking,” told C.H. Venkatachalam to IANS.

“The strike will involve employees and officers of public sector banks, old generation private banks and foreign banks with a total of more than 80,000 branches,” he added. Earlier this month, Bank unions have called for a two-day strike on July 12 and 13 following a constraint order from Delhi HC.

Venkatachalam was mainly concerned about the bad loans and told that the RBI is not taking serious measures to recover the bad loans. “Even the defaulters’ names are not being published,’ he added.