New Delhi - The two-day nationwide strike by central trade unions to protest against the government policies entered its second day on Tuesday. The strike disrupted normal life in some parts of the country.

Public transport and banking services remain partly disrupted for the second day in some states.

A joint forum of central trade unions is protesting against the government policies affecting workers, farmers, and people.

Their demands include scrapping of Labour Codes, no privatisation in any form, scrapping of National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), increased allocation of wages under MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and regularisation of contract workers.

The unions of bank employees are participating in the strike. They are protesting against the government's move to privatise two public sector banks as announced in Budget 2021-22. They are also demanding an increase in interest rate on deposits and reduction in service charges.

On Monday, the first day of the strike, public dealings at some bank branches were hit and public transport services were thrown out of gear in states like West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. However, essential services like healthcare, electricity and fuel supplies remained unaffected.

Public offices as well as educational institutions were not impacted by the strike on Monday.

The joint forum of central trade unions said bandh-like situation prevailed in at least eight states on the first day of the strike.

"There is a bandh-like situation in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, Haryana and Jharkhand," the forum had said in a statement on Monday.

Workers protested at several places and unions claimed the agitation had an impact in coal mining belts of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh on Monday.

The central trade unions that are part of this joint forum are INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC.

-PTI