United Forum of IDBI Officers and Employees staged a dharna in front of Jantar Mantar, Delhi, on Wednesday to protest proposed disinvestment in IDBI Bank.
United Forum of IDBI Officers and Employees staged a dharna in front of Janta Mantar, New Delhi, and conducted a seminar on ‘IDBI Bank privatisation’ at Constitution Club on Wednesday as part of an ongoing campaign to protest proposed strategic disinvestment in bank.
These events followed a meeting of Forum representatives had earlier with Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and MPs from various parties, including BJP, Congress, NCP, SP, DMK, TDP, Shiv Sena, CPI(M), AAP, RSP and AIADMK, in which they submitted a memorandum seeking latter’s intervention in the matter.
Foreign bidders
There is no reason why this profit-making entity should be sold to private entities, more so to those of foreign origin, according to Devidas Tuljapurkar, Convenor; and Ratnakar Wankhade and Vithal Koteswara Rao AV, Joint Convenors, of the Forum.
“Bidders appear to be interested more in various properties bank owns, including 50 acres of land in Hyderabad, than extending financial services,” the Forum leaders said in a press release. There is reason to believe bidders are bargaining hard to obtain various concessions and relaxations from not just Centre but also regulators.
Minister’s assurance
The Forum drew MPs’ attention to assurances given by then union finance minister Jaswant Singh in 2003 that Centre would not disinvest stake in bank to a level beyond 51 per cent. But Ministry of Finance is now in process of selling Centre’s 30.48 per cent share and LIC’s 30.24 per cent share respectively.
Bank has operated as Development Financial Institution from 1964 to 2004 and as a universal bank ever since, with 2,064 branches. It serves two crore depositors including 18.72 lakh Jan Dhan account holders, caters to social priorities, and makes significant profits along with social profits, the Forum leaders pointed out.
Proposes meet with PM, FM
Forum will continue to seek appointment with Prime Minister and Finance Minister to share concerns as well as request rollback of proposed disinvestment. It has also demanded Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman and the RBI be advised to treat bank as a public sector bank for regulatory purposes and also restore its core function of development banking.
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Published on April 4, 2025
