A delegation of the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation met P P Prabhu, advisor to the Governor and urged the State government to review the list of holidays declared for financial institutions under the Negotiable Instruments Act for the year 2008.
The delegation informed the government that January 15 (Makara Sankranthi), April 18 (Mahaveer Jayanthi), May 7 (Basava Jayanthi), October 1 (Kutub-E-Ramzan), October 8 ( Ayudha Pooja) and October 27 (Naraka Chaturdashi) were declared as holidays for State government employees and not for bank employees.
It was also brought to the notice of the government that April 1 and September 30, which are actually working days for employees, because of the yearly and half yearly closing, were now included under the declared list as holidays. This was anomalous, the delegation pointed out.
Denial of holidays for important festivals, it felt, would affect the celebration of customs followed over several centuries. Over six lakh officers and employees working in the financial sector viz Reserve Bank of India, Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks, Foreign Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Cooperative Banks, Life Insurance Corporation of India, General Insurance Companies, NABARD and other organisations, would be affected.The delegation informed that the  customers would not face any problems as  Internet Banking, ATMs would be set up.