3-day rural bank employees strike underway

From A Reporter

SHILLONG, March 26: The Meghalaya Rural Bank Employees’ Association (MRBEA) and Meghalaya Rural Bank Officers’ Organization (MRBOO) under the banner of Joint Council of Meghalaya Rural Bank Unions (JCMRBU) on Monday kick started their three-day strike by boycotting their office duties.

The strike of the employees and officers unions in Meghalaya is in line with the three-day all India strike called by the United Forum of RRB Unions across the country.

The employees of the Meghalaya Rural Bank today were seen staging a protest outside their workplace and also raised slogans pertaining to their seven-point demands.

Speaking to reporters, MRBEA general secretary, Prasanta Choudhury said, “We are staging this protest because we want to put pressure on the central government concerning our demands which includes a hike in pension, cancel the proposal of privatization of Regiol Rural Banks (RRBs), regularize all casual workers beside others.”

He informed that at present most employees after retirement would get only Rs 1800 or 2000 each month.

“This has created a lot of problem for many employees because each day they are going hungry without food as the pension is very less and the centre should do something to change this current predicament,” he said.

Informing that there are around 30,000 casual employees in various RRBs across the country, he said, “There is a need to regularize all the casual employees because some of them have been working for many years and are dependent on this job to provide for their family.” When asked, he said if the government does not pay heed to their demands the union after the three-day strike will head for Delhi and chalk out other agitation programmes to pressure the central government.