Banking operations were largely affected in the Northeast on Friday owing to the two-day strike by bankers pressing for early settlement of wage revision.
Most of the bank branches remained closed and several ATMs also ran out of cash.
All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) general secretary CH Venkatachalam informed that about 31 lakh cheques worth about Rs 23,000 crore could not be cleared due to the strike in Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi.
The situation is similar in the Northeast as well with lakhs of cheques is lying in the clearing grids.
Banking transactions have also been badly affected across the country.
The strike was called strike on the day when the Economic Survey was presented and the union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her second budget on Saturday.
The employees further said the wage revision settlement in banks is due from November 2017 as the last settlement ended in October that year.
The bank management and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) have not come forward to settle the demands with a reasonable increase in salary looking to inflation and heavy workload on the employees.
The discussions for the same, however, have been going on for the past 30 months.