Mumbai: Tempers have been flying high at several branches of the Punjab Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank in Mumbai, which was suddenly put under severe restrictions last month, allowing its depositors to withdraw only Rs 1,000 per account for six months.
The cap was subsequently hiked to Rs 10,000 and then Rs 25,000 as of Thursday evening.
Several account holders, political representatives and bank employees have been breaking into impromptu protests and agitating, blaming both the bank and the Reserve Bank of India for the mess.
On October 2, several residents in Mulund, a northeast Mumbai suburb, unknown to each other but with similar grievances, had connected over social media and gathered outside the PMC Bank branch nearby. On social media, around 50 persons had confirmed their presence, but on the day of the protest over 200 turned up.
“Some of us hold accounts with the bank, and some have turned up in support of them,” said Girija Mallick, a teacher at a municipal school nearby.
Protestors gather near PMC bank in Mulund on October 2. Photo: Sukanya Shantha
The Mulund branch, set up near a gurudwara, primarily has account holders from the Sikh community, most of whom run small businesses in the city.
“I have been dealing with the PMC bank since the 1990s. I trusted the bank and had put all my life savings here,” said Sukhbir Jadeja, owner of a welding workshop in the vicinity. This branch, he says, had taken a special interest in wooing the Sikh community and in one of the drives at the gurudwara, most people had collectively opened an account with the bank.
But when the impatient account holders turned up at the bank, they were denied permission and asked to move away from the area. “We decided to then move to the gurudwara. But the turnout was much higher than we had expected, and some of us had to stand outside the gurudwara. The police detained a few of us and took us to the chowki,” Jatinder Randhwa, a protestor, said.
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While the police claimed that they had to detain some protesters as a preventive measure due to the ongoing model code of conduct in the state, the bank’s depositors accused the police of joining hands with the bank management.
“The bank’s director, Ranjeet Singh, is Bharatiya Janata Party’s four-time MLA Sardar Tara Singh’s son. It is an open secret now that the bank was able to flout RBI rules and do as they like with the common public’s money, only because they were protected by the party. And now they are stopping us from even registering our protests,” said Damini Shah, one of the oldest account holders with the bank.
She and her daughter together have over Rs 74 lakh saved with the bank, Shah claims. “My daughter has planned to study abroad and had opened a fixed deposit here. We have no idea if she can go for her higher studies now, if we will get the money back.”
Protesters have been sticking posters outside PMC Bank branches demanding action against the bank directors. Photo: Sukanya Shantha
The protestors expressed their anger against Singh and the BJP government for pushing them to desperation. “This is peak festival season. Modi government pushed us all towards paperless transactions. We are not just paperless but cashless now,” said Tushar Ghate, a protestor, as others gathered continued sloganeering against Modi.
The city police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Thursday night arrested Rakesh Wadhawan, executive chairman of HDIL, and his son Sarang, vice chairman and MD of the group for their alleged role in the Rs 4,355 crore fraud. Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) and its group companies had taken huge loans from PMC bank. As of March 31,2019, the outstanding loan amount against Rakesh Wadhawan was Rs 1,902.6 crore and against Sarang was Rs 128.6 crore.
While the EOW has identified the duo as the prime accused in the scam, account holders want the role of the bank directors, especially those with political connections, to be probed.
“Even to get a simple car loan passed, you need to show so many documents and proofs. How and why the bank gave such huge sums to HDIL without safe guarantors is something they have to answer for,” one protestor said.
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While the protests at Mulund were organised, in most other branches, customers have been spontaneously protesting, in small and big numbers.
At the PMC branch in Kalyan, Thane district, a large group of vegetable vendors gathered to protest. Most from the municipal corporation’s vegetable market nearby have their accounts with the PMC bank and have not been able to continue with their business since the RBI’s sudden move.
“We are small business holders. Whatever we earn, we save at the bank only to be used a week later. When the announcement was made, we did not even have an opportunity to withdraw our savings, and since then most of us have not been able to run our businesses,” said Aatik Jadhav, a vegetable vendor.
Photo: Sukanya Shantha
In support of their protests, several other account holders and nearby residents too joined in demanding answers from the bank. Salima Qureshi, a cancer patient, had joined the protestors too. “Ten days ago, I underwent chemotherapy. When I found out about the bank’s issue, I forced my daughter to get me here. I have fixed deposits here and can’t continue with my treatment without this money,” Qureshi said. As she continued to protest along with others, a bank officer offered to make her meet the manager. “We are trying to make special arrangements for those in distress and in urgent need of money,” the bank officer said.
At most banks, customers have been given coupons and allotted specific timings to avoid rush and prevent spontaneous protests. Police security too has been beefed up and only those with valid identity proof are allowed inside the banks.
While most protestors were vocal about their stories of distress, some did not want to share their problems. A 40-year-old woman stood among other protestors, with her face covered. She had deposited her life’s saving at PMC Bank without her in- laws’ knowledge. “My husband and his family don’t know I have an account and that I have managed to save Rs 3 lakh. This is all I have and I can’t even ask my family to help me in this,” she said.
Another woman, Ayesh Kidwai, said she had opened an account soon after the sudden demonetisation in November 2016. “The government’s sudden decision to demonetise made us feel money is not safe at home and so we put everything in the bank. And now even banks are not safe. Where does one go?” Kidwai asked.