Bank officers' body to hold protest against govt's privatisation plan

All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) on Monday said it will hold a protest programme against the government's move to privatise public sector banks (PSBs) in Delhi later this month during the winter session of Parliament.


AIBOC general secretary Soumya Datta said the government is likely to introduce the bank privatisation Bill in the winter session of Parliament scheduled to commence from November 29.

The government's move is not based on sound economic logic, but purely a political decision to hand over the banks to "crony capitalists", Dutta claimed.

Privatising the PSBs will hurt priority sectors of the economy and credit flow to self-help groups (SHGs), he asserted.

Around 70 per cent of the country's total deposits are with the PSBs, he said alleging that handing them over to private capital will put the common man's money deposited with these banks into jeopardy.

To protest against this move of the government, AIBOC will start 'Bharat Yatra' on November 24, which will culminate at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on November 29, Dutta said.

He claimed that selling of PSBs to private bodies will lead to financial exclusion and not inclusion.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech had announced that the government will make strategic divestment in two PSBs this fiscal.