The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Banking services paralysed

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Wednesday, Mar 23, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Banking services paralysed

By Our Staff Reporter

A view of the deserted counters of State Bank of India at Kothi in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

HYDERABAD, MARCH 22. Banking services came to a grinding halt on Tuesday with officers and staff of all nationalised and cooperative banks striking work in response to the call given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU).

The striking employees are opposed to the merger of public sector banks, encouragement given to foreign banks and enabling them to take over Indian banks by giving them equity up to 74 per cent as foreign direct investment and closing of branches on the ground that they are not viable.

After half an hour of slogan-shouting outside their branches, employees marched up to the Local Head Office of the State Bank of India, for a meeting which was addressed among others by the CPI(M) MLA, M.A. Gofoor, the CPI assistant secretary, K. Narayana, the UFBU convenor, Rambabu, and the general secretary, M.V. Murali.

Mr. Narayana said the closure of branches, especially those in the rural areas on the grounds that they were non-viable, would adversely affect the rural economy.

If foreign banks were allowed to enter the picture, it would only lead to mushrooming of private moneylenders who would squeeze the hard-earned money of rural people, primarily farmers, who were hard-pressed as it is.

He said on the whole it would lead to total neglect of the rural areas, adding the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Government needed to strengthen their recovery mechanisms.

An in-depth study of why banks were in the red was also required, he said.

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