Ongole: Bank unions against disinvestment

Ongole: The members of the United Forum of Bank Unions including members of nine unions and federations including AIBEA, AIBOC, NCBE, AIBOA, BEFI, INBEF, INBOC, NOBW and NOBO staged a protest demonstration in front of the Federal Bank in Ongole, against the privatisation of the nationalised banks.

The employees said that there is the history of many private bank managements have utilised the public money for the expansion of their businesses and turned bankrupt after they lost everything. They said that the nationalised banks are the source and support for the many welfare programmes introduced by the State and Central governments. They advised the Union government to shun the idea of privatisation. They said that the private banks will not support the loans to small and medium scale industries and agriculture.

Though there were no issues in the operation of banks, the Modi government is resolved to merge and disinvest in the banks. They alleged that it is a conspiracy to loot about Rs 10 lakh crore of money in the banks. They demanded the involvement of the public in their fight against privatisation. They explained that the government has investments in the public sector undertakings for only about Rs 2,75,000 crore, but they are providing Rs 3,68,000 crore every year from the dividends and taxes to the government. The banker leaders PK Rajeswara Rao, U Venugopal, Adinarayana, Srinivasa Reddy, U Narendra, U Surendra, CPI leader Sd Sardar, CPM leader Kondareddy and others also spoke at the programme.

The AINBOF members organised a protest demonstration at the Canara Bank regional office in Ongole. The federation leaders R Sambasiva Rao, K Kishore Reddy and others said that the union government is privatising the banks by writing off nonperforming assets and showing them in losses. They warned that the government is cheating the public and it will not survive more with the disinvestment type of decisions. The AINBOF leaders Arun Kumar, GS Murthy, Raghu Varma, Rajeswar, Suneel Kumar and others also participated in the programme.