The Hindu Business Line : Bank on consensus

This is with reference to the editorial “Bank on consensus” (Business Line, January 22). The Government wants to turn the PSBs into global banks. Curtailment of services for the common people will be the net result. This is at a time when the Reserve Bank of India has acknowledged that reforms in the banking sector has led to financial exclusion of vast segments of the population.

More than 70 per cent of bank deposits are household savings. Whether these savings are to be utilised for the welfare of the masses and socio-economic development of the country or for the benefit of a few business corporates is the basic question raised by bank unions.

Bank unions are demanding continuance of mass banking practices for the benefits of small and marginal farmers, small and medium business, self-employed, rural population, for poverty reduction and job generation. What is required for customer service is social commitment and understanding the language of the masses that the PSBs possess in abundance, thanks to the mass-based recruitment practices.

K. S. Krishna Ernakulam