The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : It's business as usual at SBI branches

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 11, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

It's business as usual at SBI branches

Special Correspondent

To clear the rush, some branches were open beyond normal working hours

A BIG RELIEF: Customers flocked to SBI branches in Bangalore on Monday after its employees called off their strike on Sunday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

Bangalore: Branches of the State Bank of India and its regional offices here resumed work on Monday after the week-long strike by its employees of all cadres was called off.

At most branches there were big crowds with people waiting to conduct pending transactions and draw cash.

For many pensioners it was a question of their very existence and tellers at many counters gave them priority.

Students and others who had to make payments for examination fees and application fees were also helped by the tellers.

Some branches reported staying open a little beyond normal working hours to clear the rush. Most bank officials had to answer anxious queries about cheque clearance.

The answer invariably was that all local cheques may get cleared only towards end of the week while out-station cheques may be further delayed.

"Each branch is bound to have a few crores worth of uncleared cheques to deal with and even if we work overtime, it may take a few more days to clear the backlog. It will be another day before all cheques are accounted for," one bank officer remarked.

At some bank branches regular customers congratulated the staff on their "victory."

For the many small businesses and industries the end of the strike could not have happened sooner. "I could barely meet my pay-roll obligations this month as we were not prepared for the strike to last so long. SBI was the first to start financing small-scale industries and almost all of us do our banking with them," a small-scale industrialist explained.

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