Banks will be closed for two-day strike on March 15 (Monday) and March 16 (Tuesday), while the previous two days March 13 is a second Saturday while March 14 is a Sunday. Thus, to sum it up, banks will remain closed for four days in a row.
New Delhi: Though banking activities on mobile and internet will remain uninterrupted, several bank branches will remain closed on account of holidays and the upcoming proposed strike by banking associations in March.
Bank Unions have called for a two-day strike to begin on March 15 to oppose the planned bank privatisation of two state-owned lenders by the government.
As the banks remain closed on second Saturdays and Sundays, banking services will remain affected for four days though ATMs will be replenished with cash to enable withdrawals. But other services including cheque clearance will be affected.
The United Forum of Bank Unions in Mysuru said that their organisation consisting of 9 bank unions and representing nearly 1 million employees, will go on a two-day strike from Monday.
The fresh dissent comes on the back of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget announcements - which included public sector banks as part of the Centre’s disinvestment plans - they are set to privatise two PSU banks and one general insurance company in the year 2021-22.
The country's top lender has made all the arrangements to ensure normal functioning in its branches and offices, it is likely that the work in the bank may be impacted by the strike, it said. The working of the State Bank of India (SBI) is likely to be affected on 15 and 16 March due to a 2-day nationwide bank strike.
However, new generation private banks - HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank - are expected to function normally.
