10th Conference of State Bank of India Employees’ Union Chandigarh Circle held 

Ludhiana, April 24, 2022: 10th Conference of State Bank of India Employees’ Union (Regd.) Chandigarh Circle was held at Ludhiana on 24th April at Shri Guru Nanak Bhawan, Ludhiana. 

From AIBEA, Com C H Venkatachalam, General Secretary, Com. Rajen Nagar, President, Com. P R Mehta, President, Punjab Bank Employees Federation, Com S K Gautam, GS, PBEF, Com. Naresh Gaur, President, AISBIEA, Com K S Krishna, GS, AISBIEA, Com Ramakrishna, Jt. Sec. AISBIEA, Com Rajesh Bansal, GS, HBEF, Com Yadvinder Gupta, President, SBIEU participated in the meeting.

Employees working in State Bank of India in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal  Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and J & K attended this Conference.

Addressing the conference Com C H Venkatachalam said that the Central Government’s labour policies are affecting the workers of this country. When the Govt. is talking of Ease of Doing Business, Make in India and many other schemes, it is unfortunate that the Government does not care to announce a Live In India programme for the workers. Workers are today suffering from loss of jobs, underpayment, closures and lockout, retrenchment, etc. Especially during lockout lacs of workers have lost their jobs and their livelihood is a big question mark.   There is no scheme from the Government to rehabilitate them. Regular jobs are being made casual and contract jobs with lesser wage and no job security. In order to help the employers, labour laws are changed to the detriment of the workers. Govt. is nakedly anti-worker and pro-corporate. AIBEA will organise countrywide programmes to oppose these policies and fight for the rights of the workers.

Further he said that in 1969, major private Banks were nationalised in India. In the last 52 years, these nationalised Banks have immensely contributed for the economic development of our country. Thousands of branches have been opened, particularly in the rural areas to serve the common people. Loans are being given to agriculture, small and medium industries, education, major industries, rural development, infrastructure sector, etc. in a big way. Savings of the masses have been mobilised by these Banks to provide safety for their savings.

While addressing the conference Com. Rajen Nagar said that prior to nationalisation and even after 1969, many private banks have collapsed due to mismanagement and people have lost their savings. Nationalised Banks are protecting the savings of the people. Nationalised Banks alone are giving loans to priority sector. He said total deposits of banks today stands at Rs. 160 lac crores and tTotal loans given stands at Rs. 110 lac crores.

He said, these nationalised Banks have to be further strengthened to serve the people. But the Government has announced that nationalised Banks will be privatised. If Banks are privatised, rural banking will be affected. Private Banks will not encourage rural banking. They will be interested in more profits only. Slowly only rich people will be encouraged to have accounts. Hence AIBEA is opposing the decision to privatise the Banks. We are undertaking a national campaign to educate the people to support our demand. “We are collecting signatures from the people to submit a mass petition to Prime Minister”, he added.

Further, he said the only major problem in the Banks today is the increasing bad loans because of the default by big corporate companies. We have been demanding action against them to recover the loans. But Govt. is giving them more and more concession.

Adding, he said for the past 6 years, bad loan accounts are referred to Tribunals under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code IBC. Instead of loan recovery, these loans are being sold to some other companies for cheap rate and Banks have made huge losses.

He said IBC has become a method to loot public money because Banks incur huge hair cuts and sacrifice in these deals. Defaulters escape without any penal action on them. Another Corporate Company is taking over these loans at cheap rates.

He pointed out that the bulk of the profits (84% of the profits) earned by the Banks goes for provisions for bad loans and write off of bad loans.