The All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) on November 22 said it will hold a protest programme in Delhi against the government's move to privatise public sector banks (PSBs) 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 the priority sectors of the economy and credit flow to self-help groups (SHGs), he said. Around 70 percent 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 the government’s move, AIBOC will start a '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.
