Decision to treat J&K Bank as PSU triggers protests

Separate protests were held on Thursday against the state government’s move to treat Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Bank as a state-owned enterprise or a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU).

Governor Satya Pal Malik on November 22 approved a proposal in this regard to make the bank accountable to the state legislature like other PSUs. He has been helming the state because J&K has been under the governor’s rule since June when the Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew its support to the Peoples Democratic Party-(PDP) led coalition government.

Hundreds of J&K Bank employees gathered on the premises of the bank’s corporate headquarters in Srinagar to protest against what they called was an attempt to undermine its autonomy. They carried placards and shouted slogans like “this bank is ours and we will decide its future”.

The All India J&K Bank Officers Federation called for the protest calling the governor’s decision a “devastating step for the bank and the state’s economy”. “It is a peaceful demonstration. …we demand its [the move]’s reversal. We would not allow its implementation,” said the federation’s president, Tassaduq Madni.

Scores of PDP activists took out a protest rally in Srinagar under former minister Naeem Akhtar’s leadership. Akhtar said Malik’s move was aimed at taking away the bank’s autonomy. “This is an assault on the state’s economy and we want the governor to take it back…,’’ he said. “And we will not be at peace till then.”

A group of legislators, including Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, criticised the move. They called it unwarranted and said it must be reconsidered.

The state’s Employees Joint Action Committee held a separate meeting to express concern over the move. Officials have maintained the government has no intention of interfering in the bank’s day-to-day affairs. They say the bank’s functional autonomy with its board of directors as the supreme decision-making body remains unquestioned. Officials said the Reserve Bank of India would continue to regulate the bank and that the move to treat it as a PSU is aimed at promoting good governance and transparency in the functioning.

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