Srinagar, Nov 29: Employees of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank staged a protest here Thursday demanding a rollback of the decision of Governor Satya Pal Malik-led State Administrative Council (SAC) to treat the bank as a public sector undertaking.
Scores of employees of the bank assembled at its corporate headquarters on M A Road and staged a demonstration, under the banner of All India J-K Bank Officers Federation, to demand rollback of the SAC order.
The protesting employees who carried placards in their hands reading “rollback the order” threatened to hit streets in case the government does not revoke its decision.
They said the Governor instead of affecting banks functioning should make it even stronger in terms of economy.
“This protest is a peaceful demonstration as J-K Bank workforce is a peaceful workforce, and is against the SAC decision. We demand that the SAC rollback its decision as soon as possible and we will not let this decision be implemented on the J-K Bank,” Tassaduq Madni, president of the federation, told reporters.
He threatened mass agitation in case the decision wasn’t revoked immediately.
“This bank keeps on receiving jolts since 1947. Now this arbitrary decision of SAC will severally affect the overall functioning of the bank. We will hit streets along with our families if the decision of turning J&K Bank into a PSU is not rolled back immediately,” he added.
He also said that the bank employees will hold peaceful protests at all Zonal offices across the country on Friday to seek revocation of the Governor’s order.
Meanwhile, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday took out a protest rally demanding the revocation of the recent government order on J&K Bank.
Scores of PDP leaders and activists led by former works minister Naeem Akhtar, PDP MLC from Srinagar Muhammad Khurshid Alam and former minister Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura and took out a protest rally from the party headquarters and marched towards the Press Enclave in Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
However, a police party intercepted them at Polo View and prevented them from marching ahead.
The protesters were chanting slogans like ‘JK bank hamara hai’, and ‘roll back roll back SAC decision roll back’.
“Turning J&K Bank into a PSU is an assault on the economy of Jammu and Kashmir. We want to tell governor Sahab to revoke it,” said Akhtar while talking to reporters. “We won’t relent (until the order is revoked).”
