Employees of public sector banks will observe one-day country-wide strike on December 20 in protest against the government's move to place the Banking Law Amendments bill in the current session of Parliament. Addressing a press conference here, RA Singh, president of Jharkhand Pradesh Bank Employees Association, said the reform in the banking sector was not in the interest of the country.

The government was trying pass the bill to enable easy merger of banks, increased voting rights to private capital in both public and private sector banks, Singh said. Referring to a bill introduced in the current session of Parliament to amend Sarfaesi Act/Debt Recovery Act, he said the move was aimed at helping corporate loan defaulters by converting bad loans as investments in the equity capital of these defaulters companies, which was not acceptable.

JPBEA deputy general secretary SK Adak and vice-president Sujit Ghosh were also present in the press conference.