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PROTEST ACTION: Members of the Bank Employees Federation of India (Tamil Nadu) protesting in front of the head office of Indian Bank in Chennai as part of the nation-wide strike on Thursday. - R. Ragu

Mumbai , Dec. 14

High-value cheque clearing operations at banks across the country were affected in the wake of the Left-sponsored nation-wide strike to protest against the economic policies pursued by the Centre.

Operations of most public sector banks, barring a few such as State Bank of India, State Bank of Saurashtra, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of Baroda, were also hit by the strike. Only 76 of the 102 banks in Mumbai centre participated in the clearing operations.

The All-India Bank Employees Association, which is the largest union of bank employees, participated in the strike.

The number of high-value instruments cleared during the day was about 8,000 against a daily average of 15,000-16,000 in Mumbai. The value of the instruments cleared was about Rs 5,500 crore against a daily average of Rs 8,000-10,000 crore.

In other centres also, the number of banks that participated in the clearing was lower than normal. The strike impact was the most in Kolkata, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram where no banks participated in the clearing operations, said RBI officials.

The unions that participated in the strike were the All India Insurance Employees Association, All India LIC Employees Federation, General Insurance Employees Association and National Federation of Insurance Field Workers of India.

Port operations paralysed: Operations of major ports in the country were also affected by the strike. The All-India Port and Dock Workers Federation (AIPDWF) said that about one-lakh port and dock workers participated in the nation-wide agitation.

Mr S.R. Kulkarni, President of the federation, said the port and dock workers began their strike from the morning and were expected to continue till the start of the day shift on Thursday. In Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru ports, all cargo-handling operations came to a standstill during the day, he said.

Issues

The main issues for AIPDWF included privatisation of Mumbai port and JNPT, delay in rolling back the age of retirement to 60 and inordinate delay in payment of productivity-linked bonus, Mr Kulkarni said.

Operations of the public sector insurance companies were partly affected by the strike. About one-lakh employees out of the 1.39 employees in the public sector insurance companies participated in the strike, according to Mr K. Venugopal, National General Secretary of the All India Insurance Employees Association. The major States affected were West Bengal and Kerala, apart from Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Patna, Chennai and Visakhapatnam.

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