AIBEA will oppose any move to privatize banks by Centre

HYDERABAD, June 6: In the wake of reports published in a section of media for the past two days about reported move of privatization of some banks and permit more and more private capital in banking sector, All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) on Saturday said it would oppose any move by the Centre in this regard.
AIBEA General Secretary Ch Venkatachalam in a circular to its Unions and Members, however, said there is no authenticity about the origin of the news or confirmation of any such development. Hence we need not circulate these newspaper clippings which may result in avoidable confusion in the minds of employees.
However, he said while we can ignore this news reports for the present, we cannot ignore the agenda of the Union Government which is known to all of us. In the name of banking reforms measures, the Government wants de-nationalisation, privatisation and handing over the public sector Banks to the private corporate vested interests. This agenda is not hidden and by now it is the avowed policy approach of the Government, he added. Mr Venkatachalam said we have observed how ruthlessly, the Central Government pursued their policy of mergers and amalgamation of Banks, though there was absolutely no need and hence it was unwarranted. What they have achieved through these mergers is also a question mark. We all know that these mergers are only a prelude to their long term agenda of privatisation. Similarly, he said, there is the orchestrated propaganda that public sector banks are inefficient and tax payers’ money should not be used to bail them out any longer. But the same protagonists did not utter a single word when SBI’s money/public money was openly used to bail out the private sector Yes Bank. This is the double-standard of these people who deliberately criticise public sector Banks. The AIBEA General Secretary said the main headache in the Banks today is the alarmingly mounting of bad loans. What is needed is strong and stringent measures to recover the bad loans. But Government does not talk of ‘recovery’. They advocate ‘Resolution’. Their mechanism is IBC ? Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, he added. (UNI)