THE United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), representing about 13 lakh employees, would meet at New Delhi on April 27 and 28 to chalkout a plan of action in the wake of the Narasimham committee report on banking reforms.

The All India Bank Officers' Confederation (Aiboc) -- the largest officers' body in the banking sector -- came down heavily on the Narasimham committee's recommendation that strong public sector banks be merged and weak ones closed. The Reserve Bank Employees Association urged the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) not to implement the recommendations of the second Narasimham Committee on banking reforms which it described as ``pernicious''.

The UFBU, consisting of nine bankemployees and officers unions, would also decide on an action programme to oppose the move to close down around 3000 branches of public sector banks in rural and semi-urban areas which were said to be running in losses, the general secretary of National Confideration of Bank Employees (NCBE) P Lakshminarasaiah, said in a statement here today.

The closure move was aimed at paving way for opening of local area private banks, which was being opposed by the unions, he said. The UFBU would chalk out programmes for early settlement of charter of demands submitted to Indian Banks' Association (IBA) covering wage revision and other service conditions, Lakshminarasaiah added.

Stating that the bank employees would resist the recommendations, the Reserve Bank Employees Association association general secretary Samir Ghosh urged the government to immediately start an exercise to reach a national consensus for such a vital sector. The three-tier banking system suggested by the committee would sound the death knell ofa large number of banks with ``enormous implications for lakhs of staff and clientele.''

The committee, he charged, had ``carefully avoided'' to suggest how to recover the huge non-performing assets which, he said, was the real reason for weakness of these banks. These banks were not intrinsically weak but ``had been made weak by the nexus of top businessmen, bureaucrats and government-nominated higher-ups of the banks,'' he alleged. Besides, Ghosh said the suggestion for segregating the regulatory and supervisory function of the apex bank was ill considered and was likely to be a prelude to ``tear off'' the sensitive areas of central banking functions from the RBI ambit.

AIBOC general secretary S R Sengupta said there is no reason to merge strong banks or close weak ones. "We are totally against it," he said. Nine national level banking sector unions representing officers as well as workmen have called a meeting in New Delhi on April 27 and 28 to take stock of the situation.