GUWAHATI, Sept 1 - The Assam unit of the All India Bank Officers� Confederation (AIBOC), comprising around 10,000 members and operating in the seven states of the North East, has opposed and questioned the announcement of the Union Finance Minister to consolidate ten public sector banks into four.
As per the announcement, Indian Bank will be merged with Allahabad Bank; Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India to be merged; Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank to be merged and lastly, Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank will also be amalgamated as one.
While condemning the move aimed at ultimate privatisation of the public sector banks, Dilip Kumar Roychoudhury, the secretary of the Assam State Unit of AIBOC, urged the citizens to vigorously oppose the move.
�We strongly believe that the proposals which the government moved were not based on any logic or rationale. Neither it is a case of a weak bank getting merged with a strong one nor geographically compatible banks are being merged,� the organisation argued.
Further elaborating its point, the organisation said the United Bank of India, headquartered in Kolkata, is being merged with Delhi-headquartered Punjab National Bank, while Syndicate Bank is being merged with Canara Bank having a network in the same geographical areas.
Further, the government has come out with the merger proposal at a time when the economy is passing through a rough phase.
�It is very unfortunate to see that the government itself is attempting to destabilise the country�s economy,� the organisation said.
It further mentioned that in the process of merging the banks earlier, several branches of both the SBI and the Bank of Baroda were closed, forcing thousands of employees of these banks to take voluntary retirement.
It also countered the government�s drive to merge the banks on the pretext of having bigger banks to compete globally. �Bigger banks are more vulnerable to the global economic crisis, while smaller banks can survive the crisis and come out of it easily,� it mentioned.
