No early end to SBI strike likely

       New Delhi: Millions of account-holders of the State Bank of India had a harrowing time as the nation-wide strike called by its employees demanding higher pensions entered the fifth day on Friday, with no indication of an early end. The strike by employees of the state-run SBI has sent the financial markets into a crippling cash crunch. The locks on the bank's branches and the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) which are either shut or non-functional have added to the anxiety and inconvenience, especially to pensioners and salaried class, whose financial transactions through SBI's 9500 odd braches across the country has come to a halt since last Monday. In New Delhi, Bhoop Singh, a regular customer of the bank said he had travelled across most ATMs in the city only to return empty handed. "It is a problem now to access my account and withdraw cash. I have been trying for the last three- four days. When I called the SBI helpline they told me that at no extra charges I could withdraw from the associate banks of the SBI. But here I am at the State Bank of Indore ATM and I have tried at the State Bank of Bikaner ATM too, but the SBI card just won't operate and I am stuck with no cash," said Singh. Sanjay Jindal, another customer has a wedding in the family and needs the jewellery that is kept in his SBI lockers but no amount of 'open sesame' is going to help him reach his lockers until the bank strike is called off. The employees of the SBI, who went on nation-wide indefinite strike from Monday, refused to relent, despite Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's plea to return to work. "Let's face it, that whenever employees of any organisation, be it Electricity Board or Railways, go on a strike, it is bound to inconvenience the customers. But it should also be understood here that with the customers' interests in mind we had avoided any agitation for the last 14 years and tried to solve the matter through talks with the government. We may be perhaps the rarest of those trade unions, which continue negotiations for 14 long years. We have been driven to take this step," said V K Gupta, Vice President of the SBI Staff federation.

     The SBI employees resorted to the strike, the fourth in the bank's 200-year-old history, to press for immediate revision of individual and family pension ceiling to 50 percent of last drawn salary. The Unions say that the Finance Ministry has un-necessarily been dragging its feet on approving of the proposal, which has already been given a go-ahead by the Reserve Bank of India and the Bank's administration. SBI, with over 100 billion rupees in reserve funds in its trust account allocated for the pension alone, does not require any special budgetary sanctions, say the employees. Unions claim most of the employees including officers are striking work. SBI, with its network of various state banks under it, is the most successful public sector bank in India, providing various domestic, international and NRI products and services, through its vast network inland and overseas. SBI is the biggest player in the money and foreign exchange markets and the strike had tremendous impact on the call money and forex markets.

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