Telangana and Andhra Pradesh's banking activities came to a halt on Thursday as public sector bank employees went on strike for the first day of a two-day strike called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU).

To protest the government's decision to privatise two more public sector banks, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions including the All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW), has called a strike.

About 50,000 executives and staff of private sector banks joined the walkout in Telangana, effectively shutting down financial services. In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, nearly the same number of workers went on strike. The strike, according to UFBU Telangana section chief R. Sriram, has brought all banking services to a halt, including transactions and cheque clearance. Bank ATMs, on the other hand, were unaffected because the banks had made precautions to replace them in advance of the strike.

Employees at the State Bank of India in Koti, Hyderabad, staged a protest against the government's plans to privatise public sector banks. The demonstration was led by leaders of various bank unions. Protesters chanted chants urging the government to abandon its privatisation plans. They held posters that read, "Privatization is abandoning social banking; it is anti-people," "Strengthen public sector banks, not privatise them," and "Stop bank privatisation."

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