The Hindu : Kerala News : Officers' protest: banking operations hit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 29, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Officers' protest: banking operations hit

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 28. Normal functioning of the banking sector was affected in the State today, with a section of the officers going on casual leave in protest against the attacks on banks following the suicide of an engineering student, Rajani S. Anand, in Thiruvananthapuram last Thursday.

Members of the All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) stayed away from the banks, holding that it was unfair to target the banks for the girl's suicide. Left students and youth organisations and also the BJP-affiliated groups had been attacking banks and their off-site Automatic Teller Machines since Saturday alleging that the banks' disinclination to give her education loan was one of the reasons that prompted her to take the extreme step.

No transactions

A majority of the banks in Thiruvananthapuram did no transactions today. Though the other officers' unions and employees' unions had disassociated themselves from the mass leave action called by the AIBOC, they were unanimous in condemning the procedure adopted by the students and youth organisations while giving vent to their anger. Some of the branches of leading banks like the State Bank of India, the State bank of Travancore and the Central Bank of India served their customers today. All new generation banks too did their usual business.

The situation was identical in Kochi, while reports from Kozhikode said that the banking sector was totally paralysed there.

The AIBOC claimed that the banking operations were paralysed across the State and clearing houses too did not function.

Wrong policies

The All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA), in a statement, said the circumstances that had led to the girl's suicide and the attack on the banks were the creation the wrong policies of the Governments in the State and at the Centre. Instead of commercialising education, the State Government should evolve a policy that would enable students from all sections to pursue their studies. Merit should be the main criteria for college admissions. The economically and socially backward sections should be given all support to come up.

The AIBEA stated that the banking policies should be redrawn to ensure that the people's money was used for the people's welfare. Loans to the common man were based on conditions and this was especially true in the case of education loans, it added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala