Bank strike leaves ATMs in city dry

Most of the ATMs across the city went dry as thousands of bank employees joined the nation-wide agitation protesting against the proposed Banking Law (amendments) Bill, expected to come up in Parliament during the monsoon session, and several other issues.

Tamil Nadu United Federation of Banking Unions (UFBU) convenor C M Baskaran told Express that the strike was a huge success and they will be staging demonstration in front of State Bank of Hyderabad on Moore Street on Friday. SBI sources said that most of the ATMs in bank branches have gone dry, but the off-site ATMs are still functioning as the cash is being loaded by people from outside. Tamil Nadu has about 7,000 public sector bank branches with about 70,000 staff.