PROTESTS OVER PMC BANK SCAM INTENSIFY
Former director arrested; being questioned by EOW
Victims of the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank scam, which has allegedly claimed three lives so far, stage a protest in Mumbai on Wednesday. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on Friday an urgent plea seeking directions for interim measures to safeguard the money of customers blocked in the bank
The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking interim protection for around 1,500,000 customers of crisis-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank.
The PIL also seeks laying down “comprehensive and exhaustive guidelines” to tackle crisis like the one at PMC Bank. Such crises, the PIL alleges, leads to disastrous consequences for the hard earned money of the common people, which is “plundered by few influential and unscrupulous people”.
The bank has been placed under restrictions by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), following the discovery of a ~4,355-crore scam. Deposit withdrawals have been capped at ~40,000 over a six-month period, causing panic and distress among the depositors.
On September 24, the RBI set the withdrawal limit at ~1,000 per account, which it increased to ~10,000 the next day. On October 3, this limit was increased to ~25,000. The RBI said it reviewed the bank’s liquidity position and, with a view to reducing the hardship of the depositors, it decided to enhance the limit. With this relaxation, more than 77 per cent of the depositors will be able to withdraw their entire account balance.
Apart from guidelines, the PIL also wants that the central government and the RBI be told to ensure complete insulation and insurance of the hard-earned money of people that they deposit in various cooperative and nationalised banks.
This, the petitioner said, could be done by enacting an appropriate measure of 100 per cent insurance coverage towards the deposited amount. In Mumbai, the Economic Offences Wing of the police on Wednesday arrested Surjit Singh Arora, one of the former directors of the bank. This is the fifth arrest in the case.