New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has requested the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to issue advisories to all states and union territories alerting law enforcement agencies to ensure adequate security arrangements at critical banking infrastructure ahead of the proposed three-day nationwide band strike from September 28 to September 30.The department of financial services (DFS) has urged the MHA to facilitate heightened security cover around currency chests, cheque clearing processing centres, data centres, data recovery centres, treasury operations, IT centre, cyber security cell and ATMs, along with protection extended to employees not participating the strike, as per an official memorandum dated Monday (September 21), reviewed by The Wire.The memorandum follows a series of meetings chaired by the secretary of DFS with the Crisis Management Group and the heads of public sector and rural banks and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) on Friday (September 18) and Monday (September 21) respectively to review preparedness for the strike.The memorandum, signed by joint secretary (banking) Shalini Pandit, also requested the MHA to share state-specific intelligence reports regarding the strike with the DFS for “smooth-functioning of banking services” and “monitoring of the situation.”The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), which represents an overwhelming majority of public sector banking workforce, said it will go ahead with the strike in absence of any positive response from the government regarding its demand for a five-day banking week.Earlier, following a meeting between Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and a delegation led by the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the labour wing of the RSS, the Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme had been put on hold before the UFBU’s one-day nationwide bank strike on September 11. However, no concrete communication has been issued regarding the unions’ call for a five-day banking week. Other demands of the UFBU include an improvement of pension, a uniform dearness allowance formula – a cost-of-living adjustment paid to all government employees and pensioners to combat the impact of inflation – and an option provided to all employees under the National Pension System (NPS) to move to the old pension scheme.During a conciliation meeting organised on Tuesday (September 22), the DFS and the Finance Ministry urged the UFBU to defer its strike, assuring representatives that the government was working on several initiatives targeting bank employees. The ministry also warned of potential disruption to bank services and widespread public inconvenience due to a three-day strike and requested the unions to instead proceed via dialogue.According to the Times of India, while responding to the DFS and IBA’s appeals to defer the demand, UFBU said in a statement that in case there were “any concrete and positive developments towards implementation of [their] demand for introduction of five-day banking, the UFBU will consider the same.”The unions are expected to commence their strike on the following Monday (September 28), with banking services likely facing a week-long disruption in light of the coming national holidays. Moreover, the strike is scheduled to end on September 30, which marks the half-yearly closing of financial accounts for banks, resulting in extensive reconciliation and reporting requirements.