SBI's VRS scheme cruel as economy has collapsed: P Chidambaram

New Delhi [India], September 7 (ANI): Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday slammed the reported State Bank of India (SBI) plan to implement a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) at a time when the economy has collapsed and called it cruel.
"News reports say that SBI plans to implement a VRS scheme as an 'economy measure'. In normal times the plan would be debatable. In these abnormal times, when the economy has collapsed and jobs are scarce, it is cruel," Chidambaram tweeted.
"If India's biggest lender has to shed jobs, imagine what other big employers and MSMEs are doing. The plan is ostensibly voluntary but we know that subtle pressure will be brought on the employees that the Bank wants to get rid of. If the current rules provide for genuine voluntary retirement, why announce a new plan and give out an exact number like 30,190?" he added.
According to sources, SBI has planned a VRS scheme under which over 30,000 employees are eligible. The employee strength of SBI stood at about 2.49 lakh at the end of March 2020 as compared to 2.57 lakh a year ago.
Earlier last week, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said that development was lagging behind in the country and highlighted a few points regarding the lack of development.
Taking to Twitter, Gandhi, in a translated tweet, said that 12 crore jobs are missing, 5 trillion dollar economy is missing, the income of the common man is missing.
"Prosperity and security are missing in the country and if a question is asked, the answer is missing. Development is missing (in the country)," he added. (ANI)