The ATMs of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) displayed ‘not working’ and ‘under maintenance’ boards as the machines obviously ran out of cash as the strike by employees of the PSBs continued for the second day on Tuesday.
Though the bank unions have given the strike call for the two-day strike on Monday and Tuesday, the preceding two days on Second Saturday and Sunday being bank holidays seemed to have had a double impact on the flow of cash. Bank employees staged a protest outside the UCO Bank branch at Dwaraka Nagar against the decision of the Central government to privatise PSBs.
Addressing the large gathering of bank employees and officers, CPI State assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy said this movement should be turned into a people’s agitation drawing inspiration from the farmers’ agitation in Delhi. Banks must be continued under government management for the benefit of the common man, he said. The government should implement stringent laws for the recovery of corporate bad loans instead of privatising PSBs, he said.
Union leaders Mangapathi, P.R.N. Prasad, R.V. Ravi Kumar, V. Srinivas Rao, V. Ramesh, Rajkumar, R. Vasant Rao, A. Srinivas Rao, P. Eswar Rao, Usha Rani, Prasanna Lakshmi, Sujatha and Pydi Raju participated.
