Ranchi Mar 28 PTI Banking services at public sector banks were affected in Jharkhand on Monday as a major section of employees did not report for duty on the first day of the nation-wide strike called by a joint forum of central trade unions to protest against various wrong policies of the governmentThe two-day strike was also supported by the All India Bank Employees Association AIBEA However there was hardly any impact on the services of private sectors banks in the stateJharkhand chapter of the Bank of India Employees Union BoIEU claimed that more than 2000 branches of various public sector banks remained shut across the stateBank employees were seen on dharna outside the gates of their bank branches Trade union workers also took out protest marches in various parts of the stateSaket Kumar Sharma assistant general secretary of BoIEU Ranchi zone told PTI that they were protesting against various issues including privatisation of banks sale of public sector units and outsourcing in the banking systemWe are also demanding re-constitution of the old pension scheme he saidMeanwhile five workers of Heavy Engineering Corporation HEC Limited claimed they suffered injuries in a scuffle with bandh supporters here who wanted to stop them from entering the plantThe workers were on their way to the HEC plant for the morning shift when the incident took place The workers alleged that they were beaten up by the trade union members The workers are undergoing treatment at a facility of the companyHEC officials however claimed that production remained unaffected as there was about 90 per cent attendance on MondayINTUC central secretary and vice president of Indian National Mines Workers Federation INMWF AK Jha claimed that coal dispatch and road transportation remained affected in JharkhandCoal production was affected by more than 70 per cent Dispatch and transportation have totally been affected he told PTIHowever coal companies including Central Coalfields Limited CCL and Bharat Coking Coal Limited BCCL claimed that there was no impact of the strike on coal productionA CCL official said that only transportation was slightly affected at Charhi Barka Sayal and Kathara-Bokaro projects while production was almost normalThe joint forum of central trade unions opposing privatisation in any form is on a two-day nationwide strike and their demands include the scrapping of the proposed changes in labour laws and the national monetisation pipeline Increased allocation of wages under MNREGA Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act and regularisation of contract workers are also part of their demandsApart from the ten central trade unions -- INTUC AITUC HMS CITU AIUTUC TUCC SEWA AICCTU LPF UTUC -- the joint forum also includes independent sectoral federations and workers associations PTI SAN NAM NN NN