BHUBANESHWAR: The employees of around 46 Cooperative, Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Banks who have been struggling without any pay or perks for the past six years sat on an indefinite strike under the banner of CARD Bank Employees Union Bhubaneswar, demanding immediate addressal of their demands.
With a 10-point charter of demands, including merger of CARD bank with OSCARD, release of arrears, implementation of voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), release of VRS funds of CARD bank employees available with OSCARD bank, the striking employees have threatened to go on a hunger strike and intensify the agitation if the government continues its indifference to their concerns.
For the past three years, around 100 employees of the CARD Banks have pressed their plight before the Cooperation Department which manages this banking system, only to have received assurances and datelines.
“We have been surviving without salary for half a decade. Our children have dropped out of schools and the situation is extreme now. Many of us are contemplating ending our lives,” a striking CARD bank employee said.
While the CARD banks of the State are managed by an apex body - ‘Odisha State CARD Bank’, due to gross mismanagement of funds and subsequent seizure of line of credit from National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD), the employees of the former have literally been orphaned.
“Our demands have fallen on deaf ears of the State Government which can take a decision to liquidate 22 buildings and around 100 acres of cultivable land under the ownership of the CARD Bank to facilitate the VRS scheme,” General Secretary of the Association, Mohan Gopal Panda said.