Kolkata, July 15 (IANS) ‘Bank Bachao, Desh Bachao Manch (Save Banks, Save Country Forum)’, an umbrella body of current and retired employees of the different public-sector banks of the country, on Tuesday, sought the intervention of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to prevent the move by the State Bank of India (SBI) to shift its Global Market Unit (GMU) and its three critical centralised processing cells from Kolkata.

The said forum, on Tuesday, had written a letter to the Chief Minister to take up the matter directly with the SBI top management and the Department of Financial Services and prevent the shifting of the units from Kolkata.

In the letter, a copy of which is available with IANS, the forum has also detailed how the shifting of the units from Kolkata would impact the state exchequer of West Bengal, besides impacting the future of the SBI staff associated with these critical units.

“Nearly 150 permanent staff and over 200 casual employees will lose their jobs if these departments are shifted. More than six hundred families will be directly affected. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) contribution of these units is estimated to be Rs 25 crore every year. This will be a direct loss to the exchequer of the Government of West Bengal,” read the letter.

According to the letter, the move to shift the critical units from Kolkata was also in direct violation of the tripartite agreement signed between the SBI management and the bank’s officers and staff unions on March 13, 2008, which stated that the Forex treasury would continue to operate from GMU Kolkata.

“In 2015 the Central Global Back Office was set up inside GMU Kolkata on the initiative of former SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya. The office was created to decentralise critical work and to strengthen the role of Kolkata in handling global banking operations,” the letter pointed out.

The forum had also complained that the SBI management did not explore the option of relocating work from other states to Kolkata and instead had only taken work away from this state.

“This clearly shows a discriminatory approach. As a metropolitan centre and state capital, Kolkata is fully equipped to handle such work. The State Government has always extended support to public institutions,” the letter to the Chief Minister read.

–IANS

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