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‘May Day’ seems to be taking a new avatar, with bank men preferring to observe it as “Anti Privatisation and Anti Merger day”.
Voicing strong objection to the privatisation move and proposed merger of banks so as to have six or seven large entities in the country, Senior Vice-President of the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), D Thomas Franco Rajendra Dev, said the confederation would vehemently oppose any such move as it would prove detrimental to the economy and result in turmoil within the industry.
“The need of the hour is strengthening existing banks and branches, making them a hub of all services. Studies show that in India, 11 branches cater to the needs of every 1 lakh people, whereas in other BRIC nations, it is 40 branches.”
Dev added, “Again, while giving licences for Universal Banks, Payment Bank and Small Banks on the one hand, the regulator is talking of merging the existing entities so they stand out in size or make them product-specific banks. Is it not contradictory?”
“Public sector banks are created out of public money. These entities are therefore duty-bound to extend all types of services to customers across categories. If the recommendation is for portfolio-based bank, then why did they convert IDBI, which was originally created for project/infrastructure financing?,” the AIBOC Senior V-P asked, before stating that the erstwhile mergers – New Bank of India with Punjab National Bank, Global Trust with Oriental Bank of Commerce – had not led to better performance.
Dev incidentally was in the city to kick off the movement in this region.
Speaking to BusinessLine , he said, “We started off from Chennai, before moving to Tiruchi circle on May 3, Madurai circle the following day, in Coimbatore on May 5 and Salem on Friday. We are in the process of preparing a year-long Action Programme. The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) is slated to meet at Hyderabad on May 11. We would be announcing our strike programme against privatisation of public sector banks post this meeting.”
The Confederation meanwhile has started creating awareness about this move amongst the public by organising street plays across various towns in the State. “We have identified 10 states for replicating this exercise including Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, UP, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, the North-Eastand Maharashtra among others.”
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