Don’t privatise PSU banks, AIBEA plea to Modi government

Central government should desist from privatising and merger of PSU banks. Instead it should open more banks in rural areas and provide employment, said C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) here on Sunday.

He told presspersons that public sector banks provide safety to savings of poor people and workers. There is a savings of Rs 127 lakh crore in these banks, mostly from poor people.

He said these money should be utilised to provide loans to poor people, agriculture, education, industry. But the government is giving loans to big industrialists like Kingfisher’s owner Vijay Mallya.

A sum of Rs 15 lakh crore has been given as loan to these industrialists. But instead of collecting back these loans, government is trying to give waiver. Criminal action should be taken against these people, Venkatachalam said.  

In the year 2018-2019, profits of the PSU banks was Rs 1,49,000 crore. But after using this amount for offsetting non-performing assets, a loss of 67,000 crore was incurred. Later Venkatachalam inaugurated the 12th state level conference of Tamil Nadu Bank Deposit Collectors Union (TNBDCU).   

“These bank deposit collectors help in pooling the savings of people to banks as deposits. But they don’t have permanent salary. We have taken up this as a demand. Five hundred bank deposit collectors are attending this conference. They should be given benefits like leave, pension etc like other bank employees. We are fighting for these demands and the conference will pass a resolution against bank privatisation move of the government,” Venkatachalam said.

Mr. E. Arunachalam, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Bank Employees Federation (TNBEF) K. Venugopal, treasurer, AIBEA, P. Ponnusamy, chairman of  (TNBDCU) participated in the conference.