Bankers start 4,000 km ‘Save Banks, Save Nation’ campaign

Bank employees launch 4,000-km 'Save Banks, Save Nation' campaign to oppose Centre's move to amalgamate & privatise PSU banks. If done, rural poor won't get loans, services & benefits will be scrapped & recruitment transparency gone. 2008 crisis showed PSU banks' strength. Union Finance Ministry accused of sabotaging banking industry to benefit corporate firms. Campaign flagged off by Thoothukudi Mayor.

Public sector bank employees have started a 4,000-km-long ‘Save Banks, Save Nation’ campaign to seek justice from the people even as the Centre is keen on amalgamation and privatisation of PSU banks.

 Similar campaigns have been launched from Chennai, Hosur and Coimbatore, which will culminate in Tiruchi on July 22 with a public meeting.

 The campaigners say the Narendra Modi-led Union Government, which is working overtime to privatise all public sector banks ever since it came to power in 2014, has also paved the way for privatising cooperative banks and is trying to wrest powers from the State Governments to administer the banks directly. If the 49% share of rural banks are sold to the private sector as being proposed by the Centre, the rural poor will not get any loan even for their emergency needs.

 If the banks are privatised, there will be no safety for the deposits and financial services being offered to the common man. The private banks, which offer certain services and benefits to their customers now because of the existence of public sector banks, will scrap them if all PSU banks are privatised.

 Loans for farming operations, small businesses, higher education and so on will be stopped, while corporate firms, which usually do not proporly repay loans with interest, will get whopping loans without any surety. Transparency in recruitment of staff will be a thing of the past and reservation in recruitment of staff will go, they warned.

 The bankers recalled that most of the private sector financial institutions became bankrupt before 1969 and most of the investors lost their deposits in the banks instantly. When the 2008 economic meltdown saw multinational banks biting the dust, the banking sector in India withstood the shock since most of the banks were public sector financial institutions.

 “We allege that the Indian public sector banks are being crippled purposely by the Union Finance Ministry, which is vehemently opposed by 10 lakh employees and the officers of banks. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, who shelved the plan due to intense agitation by the bankers, has revived her attempt to privatise the public sector banks besides taking all-out steps to precipitate the banking operations through outsourcing, levying exorbitant service charges on financial transactions etc. while allowing the corporate firms to go scot-free even after their loans became non-performing assets. All these anti-banking industry sabotages are being orchestrated to derail the public sector banking to strengthen further the corporate firms, which are waiting to enter banking industry with an eye on huge deposits,” the campaigners said.