Bank staff protest merger of Syndicate Bank in Ongole

Ongole: The Syndicate Bank Employees Union, All India Bank Officers Association and retired bank employees associations organised a protest in front of the Syndicate Bank regional office in Ongole on Friday, demanding that the central government shun its decision to merge banks.

The SBEU Assistant Secretary of the State, M Narendra Babu said that the Syndicate Bank which has a rich history of public-oriented service by opening branches in the remote places and distributing loans to farmers and marginalized merchants.

He said that the Syndicate Bank will lose its identity due to the one-sided decision of the government. The AIBOA zonal committee member Sunil said that many banks in the other countries were closed down when the recession hits the world, but the banks in India are unaffected due to the discipline here.

There is no need for the government to make the banks much bigger by merging with one another, he ascertained. The SBEU leader V Venugopal said that the public doesn't need big banks but small banks that cater to their needs, closer to their places.

AIBOA leader Dinesh Reddy demanded that the government should take back its decision of merging the banks and warned that they would take up a severe action plan to protest it.

The SBEU leader Ch Rajesh Kiran warned that they would start indefinite strike if the government doesn't go back on its decision. The UFBU convener V Ramachandra Rao said that the public also should join the bank employees in the protest against the merger of the banks.