Bharat Bandh Hits Commuters, Banking and Insurance Sector also Affected

The shutdown called by the trade unions against the central government's economic measures on Wednesday hit commuters in many parts of the country with public transport staying off roads.

However, many government offices and educational institutions were functioning normally and there was no report of violence. 

In Himachal Pradesh, the impact of the shutdown was more in major towns like Shimla, Rampur, Theog, Solan, Mandi, Nahan, Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Dharamsala, Palampur, Kangra, Kullu and Manali as private bus operators also joined the protest.

An official of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation said more than 250 inter-state routes were badly hit due to the strike.

"The supply of milk to the state from the neighbouring state Punjab was also hit due to the shutdown," a police official told IANS here.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) also joined the strike in protest against indifferent attitude of the state government towards the problems of the fruit growers.

The strike called by various trade unions also hit Kerala hard on Wednesday as public buses went off roads and shops and banks remained shut.

"I arrived after completing a training programme in Hyderabad and now I have to sit here at the station till evening. When will I be able to drive home?" said a middle-aged private company official in Kozhikode.

All the operations at the Cochin Port were also hit.

In Kerala, 17 trade unions are taking part in the nation-wide strike to protest the anti-labour, anti-people policies of the central government.

Most of the IT firms in Technopark and Infopark reported very thin attendance.

The Kerala government, however, said those government employees who will not report to work would lose the day's salary.

All examinations that were to be held on Wednesday have been postponed by the various state universities.

However, the strike exempted people going for the Haj pilgrimage from the Kochi airport.

The Wednesday strike has also had its impact on the banking and insurance sector, a top leader of the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIEBA) said.

"The strike has started on an encouraging note across the country as per initial information we got. Employees of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), nationalised banks, old private sector banks, cooperative banks, regional rural banks are participating in the strike," AIEBA general secretary C.H. Venkatachalam told IANS.

According to him, strike is a success in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.

Across the country around 500,000 bankers - workers and officers - would be participating in the strike. Around 75,000 branches will not work.

The strike was called in support of the 12-point charter of demands of the 10 Central Trade Unions.

The unions in the banking and insurance sectors are participating in the strike in support of the 12 point charter as well as pressing the issues in their sectors.

Complaining of increasing attacks on the rights and privileges of workers and concessions being extended to the employers, Venkatachalam said there are open attempts to amend labour laws in favour of the employers and to the detriment of the workers.

The neo-liberal economic policies are only aggravating the problems of the workers and common masses.

Venkatachalam said in the banking sector, there are continuous attempts to push through the reforms agenda aimed at privatisation of banks, consolidation and merger of banks and others.

"More and more private capital and foreign direct investments are being encouraged. Private sector companies are being given licences to begin banking business," he said.

According to him, Regional Rural Banks are sought to be privatised and a bill has been passed in parliament despite protests from employee unions.

The real problem of increasing bad loans is not being effectively handled by the Government but on the other hand, crore of rupees are being written off from profits of banks, Venkatachalam said.

"Deliberate and willful default of bank loans should be termed as criminal offence and money recovered but no action is being taken on them," he added.

"As on March 31, 2015, there are 7,035 cases of willful defaulters involving bad loans of Rs.58,792 crore.

"The bad loans in the Banks as on March 31, 2015, has risen to 2,97,000 crore in addition to another Rs.4,03,004 crore of bad loans of 530 corporate companies shown as rescheduled and restructured loans under CDR (corporate debt restructuring) scheme," Venkatachalam said.

According to him bad loans struck up in top 30 borrowal accounts of public sector banks as on March 31, 2015, is Rs. 1,21,162 crore.

Unions in State Bank of India (SBI) and Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) are not participating in the strike.

"Perhaps it shows their imperial attitude," a union official told IANS preferring anonymity and punning on SBI's earlier name Imperial Bank.

"All the major recognised unions representing Class III and IV employees in Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and four government owned non-life insurers are participating in the strike," J.Gurumurthy, vice president, All India Insurance Employees Association (AIIEA) told IANS.