Mumbai, June 4 (IANS): Banking operations were severely hit as workers struck work in five associate banks of the State Bank of India across the country on Thursday, a union official said here.

The strike by clerical staff was to protest against the proposed merger of the five associates of SBI, the country's leading public sector bank, said All Indian Bank Employees Association vice president Vishwas Utagi.

"The employees are opposed to the merger and we want these five banks to be delinked from SBI and function independently," Utagi told IANS.

The five associate banks hit by the strike are the State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore.

Utagi said that around 50,000 staffers were on strike on Thursday in 6,000 branches of the five associate banks all over India.

On account of the strike in the five associate banks, inter-banking operations with other banks, including the SBI, also suffered, he added.

Today's strike was supported by all unions in the banking sector which have planned a major all-India strike on June 24.