Chandigarh, May 31: As the bank strike continued for the second day on Thursday, customers in Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and J&K had a harrowing time due to closure of over 10,000 branches of public sector banks across the region. The bank employees were protesting against a “meager” 2% salary hike offered to them by the Indian Banks Association (IBA).
The customers also complained of non-availability of cash at certain ATMs. According to a banking source, over 1,000 ATMs belonging to different public sector banks went dry in the region. “As the protest coincided with the month-end, ATMs witnessed huge withdrawals.
Since the employees were on strike, the ATMs could not be replenished and went dry. As many as 700 ATMs of SBI alone were out of cash in the region on Thursday,” said a senior State Bank of India official requesting anonymity.
In addition to this, banking transactions such as deposits, fixed deposit opening and renewals, government treasury operations were also hit due to the strike.
