TN: Bank Employees Hold 4,000 km Vehicle Rally to ‘Save Banks, Save Nation’

Bank employees in Tamil Nadu started the ‘Save Banks, Save Nation’ jatha on July 19, demanding the protection of public sector banks and the nationalisation of private banks. The Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) is conducting the 4,000 km vehicle rally emphasising the need to protect the public sector, cooperatives and rural banks.

The campaign started from four centres, namely Chennai, Tuticorin, Hosur and Coimbatore, and they will converge in Trichy on July 22.

T Ravikumar, state general secretary of the federation, told reporters at the campaign launch event in Chennai, “On the 55th anniversary of the nationalisation of private banks (July 19, 1969), public sector banks should be strengthened and protected.”

"After the nationalisation of banks, the banking sector has grown from 8,000 to over 1 lakh branches. Cooperative, under state government, and rural banks have also grown tremendously," he said.

"The Union government is trying to destroy the public sector, cooperatives and rural banks. The Budget 2021 announced the privatisation of two public sector banks. Government advisers are recommending the privatisation of all public sector banks. This process is delayed due to the united struggle of the bank employees," he said.

About 10 lakh bank employees across the country went on strike between March 15-16 and December 16-17 to protest the privatisation of banks.

'SAVE RURAL BANKS'

The BEFI statement said that if rural banks are privatised, the purpose of creating them, which is "service to poor people," will be destroyed, and common people will suffer. Rural banks provide 90% of the total credit to the rural poor.

"The Union government is selling 49% shares of rural banks to private players. This should be abandoned," said BEFI all India joint secretary, CP Krishnan, at the launch in Chennai.

BEFI has also demanded the Union government abandon the move to transfer cooperative banks from the control of the state to the Union government.

'STOP ATTACK ON GOVT BANKS'

Government banks are being systematically shut down, five lakh vacancies are left unfilled, and customer service is severely affected by poor employee turnover, noted BEFI.

Unskilled workers are employed as temporary workers, and lakhs of commercial agents are hired on a contract basis and subjected to severe exploitation, said the BEFI statement.

Tens of crores of rupees are collected from customers in various ways like SMS charges, ATM charges, payment charges, passbook charges, and not maintaining minimum balance charges, it read.

On the other hand, the loans of big capitalists are waived off. The RBI has bailed out willful defaulters and fraudsters by entering into compromise agreements.

'DON'T DESTROY BANKING'

Private banks are only profit-oriented and will exploit people, preferential credit for common people will be completely abandoned, and crores of Jan-Dhan accounts will not be maintained, observed BEFI in its statement.

Moreover, there will be no transparency in bank recruitment, reservation of seats in appointments will be waived, and high-level corruption will intensify, it stated.

Interest on loans for common people will rise sharply; agriculture, small businesses and education loans to the poor and middle class will be denied, and India's economy will stagnate, holds BEFI.

"This is detrimental to the welfare of the country as a whole and the welfare of the people of the country," read the statement.

Krishnan said, "High-level corruption is taking place in private banks. Before the nationalisation of banks, 558 of them went bankrupt. After that, 38 private banks went bankrupt. Therefore, if banks are privatised, people's savings of Rs 187 lakh crore will be unprotected."

"The Union government says they will have one cooperative bank on an all-India scale, and all other cooperative banks can merge with it. This is against federal structure," he added.

BEFI also demanded that customer services be improved, and improper service charges be removed.