Bharat Bandh Bank strike: United Front of Central Trade Unions has called for nationwide bandh today and tomorrow against the policies of the Central Government. Due to the bandh, the functioning of the banks may also come to a standstill for two days as the All India Bank Employees Association has given its support to the bandh. Trade unions are demanding immediate change of some policies of the government. Trade unions call for the government to abolish the labor code, immediately stop any privatization, dismantle the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP) and increase wage allocation under MGNREGA and regularize contract workers.
The trade union had said after the meeting that the employees of the roadways, transport and electricity departments would also participate in the bandh. Apart from this, banking and insurance companies will also be involved in the bandh. The trade union has also appealed to unions like coal, oil, postal, income tax and tax to support the bandh. Apart from these, unions related to Railways and Defense will also hold strikes and protests from place to place in the country for two days. In the banking sector, SBI has issued a statement saying that banking services may be affected due to the shutdown. Public sector banks are on strike to protest against the decision of privatization and against the Banking Laws Amendment Bill-2021. Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank have also expressed apprehension that normal work will be affected due to the strike.
According to Amarjeet Kaur, general secretary of the All Indian Trade Union Congress, about 200 million workers and laborers from across the country will formally-informally participate in the bandh. On the other hand the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh is against this bandh. The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh says that this strike is politically motivated and its purpose is to make political gains, so they will not participate in this bandh.