Press Trust of India | New Delhi February 20, 2013 Last Updated at 11:43 IST
The nation-wide strike call has been given by United Forum of Bank Unions
Major trade unions on Wednesday began a two-day strike, as the beleaguered government prepares to present an austerity budget to parliament and weather a corruption scandal in a big arms deal.
Financial services, mining and transport are likely to be affected by the strike, called by all major trade unions to protest high inflation, a fuel price increase and what they say are violations of labour laws.
Trade union leader killed in clash
PTI adds: In Ambala, a trade union leader, who was squatting along with a group of workers near the local bus depot as part of the two-day nationwide strike call, today died when he was hit by a bus in his bid to stop it from plying, a senior Roadways official said here.
"The incident took place around 4 am this morning when Narender Singh, a bus driver by profession, tried to stop the vehicle which was being taken out from the Ambala Depot despite the strike," district president, Haryana Roadways Workers Union's, Inder Singh Bhadana said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, grappling with the country's worst economic slowdown in a decade, asked the unions to call off the strike, but talks between a ministerial panel and union leaders broke down on Monday.
"As far as we have seen, the government has nothing to offer to labourers," said Atridev Tiwari, general secretary of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (Indian Workers Union), one of the main unions leading the strike.
"It doesn't matter what the Prime Minister says now because we cannot rely on his word. He says something and does something else."
The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry said the two-day strike was expected to cause an estimated loss of Rs 150 billion-200 billion, hurting sectors such as banking, insurance and transport.
Narsing Rao, the head of state-owned Coal India Limited, which accounts for about 80% of India's coal, said output losses this week could touch 4 million tonne pushing the company further away from its production target of 464 million tonne in this fiscal year through March.
"The strike is totally uncalled for and will be destructive," said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industries.
Parliament's budget session begins on Thursday.
The finance minister plans to cut the public spending target for fiscal 2013/14 by up to 10% from this year's original target, in what would be the most austere budget in recent history as he tries to avert a sovereign credit downgrade.
The session is also likely to be disrupted by opposition protests over a $750 million deal for AgustaWestland helicopters that the defence ministry is threatening to cancel over allegations of kickbacks.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has said the Prime Minister's offer of a debate on the deal is not sufficient, but has not specified how it will respond.
The last two sessions of Parliament were badly disrupted by opposition protests and little business was conducted.
Normal banking operations were hit today as employees of public sector banks went on a two-day strike in response to a call given by central trade unions to press for wage hike in the backdrop of rising inflation.
The nation-wide strike call has been given by United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), consisting of nine national level unions, including AIBEA, NCBE, BEFI, INBEF, NOBW and AIBOC.
Apprehending disruption in their normal banking operations, many banks had already informed their customers about the proposed strike.
Meanwhile, sources said, banks have taken steps to ensure that public do not face problems at least on the cash front during the strike period.
Banks have fed additional cash in ATMs to meet the cash needs of their customers.
Bank unions are pressing for early wage revision of employees, which they said is due from November 2012. They are also opposing banking sector reforms and any plan for merger of banks.
There are 26 public sector banks with employees strength of around 10 lakh.
In December 2012 also, four bank unions went on strike opposing amendments carried out in Banking Regulation Act and Banking Companies Act, enabling foreign equity in public sector banks.
The bank strike is part of a general strike call given by 11 central trade unions including Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and All India United Trade Union Centre.
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