Members of the Meghalaya unit of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) will lend their support to an all-India strike tomorrow and Tuesday in protest against the Central government’s move towards privatising public sector banks.
The Meghalaya unit of the UFBU will hold its protest on the premises of the State Bank of India’s main branch here.
In her presentation of the central government’s budget recently, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that two nationalised banks will be privatized as part of the government’s disinvestment plan. Which banks these are was not mentioned.
The unions fear that the privatisation of two banks will inevitably lead to further such moves, which will threaten their job security and other perks.
Reformers feel that privatisation is required because these public sector banks bleed money because they are unprofitable. They also argue that they are overstaffed and prone to meddling by politicians.
“The desire of the central government of privatisation of the public sector banks will directly affect the public, especially the poor and needy, farmers and others,” the UFBU said.
