JK Bank employees protest against conversion to PSU

Srinagar, Nov 29: Jammu and Kashmir Bank (JKB) employees on Thursday staged a protest here against the State Administrative Council’s order declaring the bank a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU).

State Administrative Council (SAC) which met at Jammu on November 23 under the chairmanship of Governor, Satya Pal Malik in a significant decision approved the proposal for treating the JKB as a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU).

Carrying placards, the employees while raising slogans in favour of their demands, said the SAC’s decision would not be acceptable to them at any cost.

“The employees have been working tirelessly, putting their best for the growth of the bank. Every financial institution needs conductive atmosphere to prosper. The stability needs to be retained,” said a protesting employee.

The protest was carried out under the banner of All Jammu and Kashmir Bank Employees Federation (AJKBEF).

President AJKBEF, Tasaduk Madni, while addressing the media, said the decision would be “disastrous” and “destructive” for the bank.

Madni said they would continue with the protests till the decision was not taken back.

President Jammu and Kashmir Bank Officers Association (JKBOA), Kashmir, Mehraj-ud-din Shah, demanded revocation of the order at an earliest.

“We would fight for its revocation with all our might and would continue our protests till the order is revoked. We had never thought that JKB would be converted to a PSU. On Friday, the employees would hold the protest at their respective Zonal Offices,” he said.

Meanwhile, Industrialists from Khanmouh while terming the decision as “unfortunate” threatened to hit the streets, in case the order was not revoked by Monday.

“As a mark of protest, we would close down our units on Saturday. We believe that the day is not far away when JKB would be merged with some other bank,” said the Senior Vice President Industrial Association Khanmouh, Kaisar Shahid, in a presser.

Industrialists attribute move as ‘economic terrorism’

Srinagar, Nov 29: Industrialists Association Khunmoh (IAK) on Thursday termed the recent decision of the Governor-led State Administrative Council (SAC) to turn JK Bank into a Public Service Undertaking (PSU) as ‘economic terrorism,’ and threatened to hit the streets in case the order was not revoked by Monday.
Addressing a press conference, IAK members including Kaiser Shahid Sr Vice president, Yasir Khan Vice president, Imran Murataza General Secretary, Shaheem Khan Secretary Finance and Javaid Ah Lone Secretary said that the recent decision taken by the government to reduce JK Bank as PSU was ‘economic terrorism’, and would not be accepted by the people across the State.
Giving ultimatum to the government on revoking the decision till Saturday, the IAK said that the Industrialists will observe shutdown on Saturday (December 01) and in case the decision won’t be revoked they would hit the streets by Monday.
Seeking roll back of SAC decision on J&K bank, IAK members said that they are apprehensive that the bank will be merged with any other bank soon in case the decision will not be revoked. They added that they are in favour of JK Bank’s transparency, but let the government come up with benefits of turning it to PSU.
They said that since its inception in 1938, JK bank enjoyed its economic freedom and attains important position in the society of J&K with its hard work, honesty and integrity. It adds value to the people of Jammu & Kashmir and supports native industries of J&K as the bank is the main institution providing financial support to industries, they said.
They said that down gradating of prime important financial institute of state to bring at par with other state owned institutes, will only reduce it to loss making institutions like SRTC, J&K cements, J&KTDC.
“The model proposed by Government of India for treating J&K bank as PSU is a failure model as out of 21 PSU in India, 17 are loss making,” they said, adding that JK bank is the only bank owned by its state, which is a special privilege to this state, and by making it PSU is a simple erosion of economic freedom and special status of Kashmir.