PATNA: Y. Tharak, the secretary of the State Bank of India (SBI) staff federation, said the centre's policy of going ahead with privatisation of public sector banks would doom India's economy. "The private sector ICICI Bank episode should work as an eye-opener for the government and policymakers before blindly encouraging privatisation of public sector banks," Tharak told IANS on a visit here. ICICI Bank is investigating what triggered rumours that it was going bust, leading thousands of depositors to withdraw money in panic over the weekend. Tharak said a mere rumour had triggered panic among ICICI Bank depositors and that indicated people had no faith in private banks' functioning. "The way investors queued up at ICICI Bank ATMs across India to withdraw their money suggests that they lack confidence in private banks," he claimed, adding that such an incident was unheard of in any nationalised bank because consumers had faith in them. Tharak alleged that privatisation of public sector banks is being done under pressure from Western countries and international lending agencies. He cautioned these outside forces would coerce banks to shed social responsibility and that would affect millions of Indians, particularly the poor. Asked about the central government's dilly-dallying on a proposed wage revision agreement, he said about 300,000 bank employees would participate in a nationwide stir on May 21 to press for its implementation. Tharak also said it was difficult to understand why, at a time when the federal government and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee were talking of generating employment, no initiative had been taken to fill 10,000 vacancies in SBI.
Source: IANS