Strike hits banking services in northeastern states
Agartala/Guwahati, May 31 : Banking operations continue to be badly affected in Tripura, Assam and other northeastern states for the second consecutive day on Thursday as most branches of major banks remained closed due to a nation-wide employees' strike.
Reports from various northeastern states said that banking services except those of the Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative banks continued to be badly affected in all the eight northeastern states.
Many branches of the private banks remained closed on Wednesday and Thursday due to the pressure of the agitating bank employees' organisations.
Leaders of the striking employees claimed that the response of the bank strike is tremendous in all northeastern states.
Currencies in most of the ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) were exhausted, causing huge problems for the people specially those from the trading communities.
The agitating employees were holding demonstrations in front of their bank branches protesting the "anti-people banking reforms" and demanding for wage revision in the wake of the proposal for a two per cent hike in salary.
National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE) Tripura unit Secretary Swapan Modak said: "About 4,000 bank employees belonging to about 500 nationalised bank branches in Tripura took part in the strike."
"The bank employees' organisations have been demanding early wage review settlement, sufficient raise in salary and improvement in other service conditions and wage revision settlement for all officers up to Scale 7," he told the media. All India Bank Officers Confederation Tripura state Secretary Sanjay Datta also echoed the views of Modak.
The employees of Tripura Gramin Bank and Tripura Cooperative Bank are not participating in the two-day strike.
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) -- the umbrella organisation of nine employees' unions and four officers' associations -- had called the strike after its talks with the IBA in New Delhi failed.
NCBE leader Modak said : "The bank strike is not for the interest of the employees alone... the strike is to protest policies of the central government and to protect the Indian banks from foreign controls."
The banking employees have also been protesting the outsourcing of non-core activities by the authorities.
Government and foreign exchange transactions were also affected due to the shutdown.
"Due to the bank strike, lakhs of employees are unable to withdraw their salaries through ATMs and most of the machines have exhausted money," Tripura government official Dibyendu Sekhar Datta said.
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India beat SA by 135 runs in 4th T20I, clinch series 3-1
Johannesburg, Nov 15: India beat South Africa by 135 runs in the fourth and final T20 International to clinch series 3-1 here on Friday.
Opting to bat, India posted a massive 283 for 1, thanks to unbeaten centuries from Tilak Varma (120 not out off 47 balls) and Sanju Samson (109 not out off 56 balls), and then bowled South Africa out for 148 in 18.2 overs.
Tristan Stubbs top-scored for South Africa with 46 while David Miller contributed 36.
For India, pacer Arshdeep Singh was the most successful bowler with figures of 3/20 while Varun Chakravarthy (2/42) and Axar Patel (2/6) got two wickets each.
Hardik Pandya, Ramandeep Singh and Ravi Bishnoi got a wicket each.
Brief Scores:
India: 283 for 1 in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 109 not out, Tilak Varma 120 not out; Lutho Sipamla 1/58).
South Africa: 148 all out in 18.2 overs (Tristan Stubbs 46, David Miller 36; Arshdeep Singh 3/20).
