SBI strike called off

The State Bank of India (SBI) officers' eight-day-long strike was called off late on Wednesday night following a settlement reached between the bank management and the All India SBI Officers' Federation at Calcutta.

According to union sources, the management has agreed to withdraw the suspension order served on three officers in a phased manner within a two-month period. The three officers were served suspension orders for alleged procedural lapses which has resulted in the Rs 580 million SBI-CRB scam.

The federation has alleged that the junior officers were made scapegoat as usual. They said that a general circular issued on February 13 this year by the chief general manager has opened the floodgates of the bank's treasury for C R Bhansali, prime accused in the Rs 12 billion CRB scam, to misappropriate huge funds and siphon out money from the bank.

Since the suspension, the union has been saying that certain ground rules for taking disciplinary action including suspension were not followed in this case.

The top management of the SBI earlier asked the agitating officers to give it 90 days to complete the inquiries into the alleged procedural lapses and suggested status quo on the suspension orders of three bank officers till that time. The federation however rejected the offer.

UNI

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