The two-day protest was called by an umbrella body of nine unions against Modi govt’s bank privatisation and disinvestment policies. According to claims made by the United Forum of Bank Unions, as many as 10 lakh bank workers have taken part in the strike.
Operations were impacted on a large scale on the first day of the strike, with banking services like cash withdrawals, deposits, cheque clearing and remittances disrupted in government banks.
These services would in all probability remain non-functional today too.
Yesterday, 2.01 crore cheque instruments worth Rs 16,500 crore could not be cleared and remained pending at the three national grids — Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, news agency PTI said citing bank unions’ data.
Most reports quoted bank unions as saying that the strike was a success on Day 1. Before the strike, several government banks had notified their customers to use internet/mobile banking for transactions during the strike period.
Public bank ATMs reportedly went dry at numerous locations across the country. Only those ATMs that have private arrangements were operational.
Private sector banks like HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank meanwhile functioned normally.
