Regional rural banks go on 2-day strike from Thursday

New Delhi: Regional rural banks employees' unions have called a two-day nationwide strike from Thursday in support of their demands and to protest against alleged moves to denationalise RRBs.

The strike, called by the United Forum of Regional Rural Bank Unions, for March 10-11, is expected to hit the RRBs' working for four consecutive days as it is followed by the bank holidays on second Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Bank Employees' Federation of India (BEFI) issued a statement on Wednesday in support of the proposed strike by employees and officers of RRBs.

"The union supports the genuine demands of RRB employees and appeals to the central government to stop privatisation moves and resolve the long pending issues of the employees," its general secretary P. Venkataramaiah said in a statement in Hyderabad.

"We appeal all the bank employees and general public to support the RRB employees as they are going on strike as the last resort after failing in all their attempts to resolve the issues amicably," he said.

BEFI said it has also submitted a detailed memorandum to the union finance minister to look into the dangers posed to the functioning of the Reserve Bank of India from the proposed amendments to the RBI Act.