Bank branches and transport services were hit on the first day of the nationwide strike
New Delhi:
In states such as West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, public transactions at some bank branches were affected and public transport services were shut down as thousands of workers started a two-day nationwide strike on Monday to protest the government’s policies.
However, essential services such as health care, electricity and fuel remained unaffected.
Public offices and educational institutions were not affected by the strike that nearly a dozen unions had called.
Some bank branches, especially in cities with a strong union movement, made very limited public transactions such as cash deposits and withdrawals.
The joint forum of central unions, which has called for the two-day strike that began Monday, said at least eight states were in a bandh-like situation as a result of the nationwide strike against various government policies.
“There is a bandh-like situation in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, Haryana and Jharkhand,” the forum said in a statement.
According to the forum, unrest was held in many industrial areas in states such as Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.
In Maharashtra, volume data from clearing houses and cash replenishment at Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) was not immediately available, although the striking workers claimed it had a deep impact.
Workers protested in several places and unions claimed the agitation had impacted mining areas in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
The joint forum of central trade unions protests against government policies that affect workers, farmers and people.
Their demands include scrapping labor laws, no privatization of any kind, scrapping the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP), increased wage allocation under MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act), and regularization of indentured servants.
In West Bengal, normal life was affected by protesters blocking roads and halting the movement of trains at some stations.
State road transport buses, auto rickshaws and private buses were off the road in Kerala but essential services including milk supply, hospital and ambulance services were not affected.
Public transport was hit in Haryana when state highway workers joined the strike.
Thousands of workers from state-owned SAIL, RINL and NMDC also joined the strike, affecting production in steel mills and mines.
Banking services were partially affected on Monday as some of the bank employees did not report for their shift.
However, there was hardly any impact on the functioning of the new generation of private sector banks. There may have been a delay in the release of checks and the operation of the treasury could also be affected by the strike.
The impact of the strike is striking in eastern India, as many branches of public sector banks there have been closed, said All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) Secretary-General CH Venkatachalam.
In the other regions, branches are open because officers are present, but services are being affected by the many workers taking part in the strike, he said.
Bank unions are protesting the government’s decision to privatize two public sector banks, as announced in the 2021-22 budget.
They are also demanding an increase in interest rates on deposits and a reduction in service charges.
The central unions that make up this joint forum are INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC.
“The two-day nationwide strike by the Joint Forum of Central Trade Unions has started this morning and has been met with good response,” Amarjeet Kaur, secretary-general of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), told PTI.
She said the entire coal belt (mining area) has been affected in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
According to her, there was a good response to the strike call in industrial areas of Assam, Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
Kaur claimed banks and insurance sectors across India were affected, while the steel and oil sectors were also partially impacted by the strike.
About 20 crore workers are expected to join the strike. The strike announcements have been made by unions in various sectors, including coal, steel, oil, telecom, postal, income tax, copper, banking and insurance.
Bal Malkit Singh, chairman of the core committee of the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), said that according to the report received so far, freight transport has not been affected by the strike.
AIMTC, the top body for the truck drivers, has not issued a strike call.
“Our trucks run smoothly across the country,” he said.
“All deliveries are normal. During the day, we have not received any feedback from any of the members across the country that there are disruptions in the supply chain…. We are not part of the agitation,” he said.
However, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said the strike called by a joint forum of unions was a “total flop” in the informal sector.
In a statement, it also claimed no impact was apparent even in several industrial areas where small industries have manufacturing operations.
