Unable To Pay Medical Bills, Struggling To Live: This Is What Depositors In PMC Bank Are Going Through

The horrors of demonetization are still fresh in the minds of most of us. For nearly two months most of the people were running from pillar to post not knowing what was going to happen with their money, both in hand and what was deposited in banks.

Many had to call off weddings and other important functions at home, while there were other instances where people died as they could not get proper medical care on time as the could not arrange enough money on time.

Three years demonetization, while most of the country has put the hardships of it behind them, thousands of people in Maharashtra are going through a similar situation all over again for no fault of theirs.

Thousands of ordinary depositors who have their entire life's savings in the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank Ltd (PMC Bank) were left with an uncertain future after the Reserve Bank of India last month imposed severe restrictions on the bank, especially on cash withdrawals.

Initially, depositors were told that they can only withdraw a maximum of Rs. 10,000 from their PMC accounts over the next six months, which was raised to Rs. 25,000 and later to Rs 40,000.

This, however, has failed to provide relief for the depositors who have spoken out about the hardships that they are going through.

In a video that went viral earlier this month a man who claims to be a staunch Modi support was seen pleading to the PM in tears to help him. In the video, he says that he was living on rent for all these years and that he was planning to buy a house when the restriction was imposed on the PMC Bank.

In another viral video, a woman was seen pleading in front of a cutout of PM Modi to release her family's life's savings which were deposited in PMC Bank.

Many others also took to social media to share their stories.

This man had undergone an organ transplant and now don't have money for his medicines.

Just saw a heart breaking video of an Ailing #PMCBank depositor who doesn't have money to buy his medicines n he was trying hard to grab @nsitharaman's attention
Urgently If anyone knows him plz get in touch with me on my direct message. #PMCBankScam #PMCBankCrisis #PMC_BANK pic.twitter.com/ETmAnw981m

¡ª RiA (@RiaRevealed) October 11, 2019

@narendramodi MY BETI EDUCATION MONEY IS WITH PMC BANK.BETI KAISE PADAOOO....BJP ..FM
..RBI SILENT IN WHICH COUNTRY. WE ARE LIVING.......
..

¡ª Kapil Yash (@KapilYash2) October 16, 2019

@RBI PMC#BANK# CRISIS. Sir we have deposited all our money in PMC Bank. My father is retired and My Mother shul under go operations no money. For our lively wood. No response from u all trusted so we will hang together. No other options we have. Gud Govt for killing people ??

¡ª Sunil (@Sunil92430530) October 9, 2019

@nsitharaman kindly save us from the PMC bank frauds. I kept my insurance money for my daughter education but I cannot take money from PMC bank. I am so panic my hard earn and saved money is in risk. Kindly secure our money and allow us to withdraw from that bank. Save common peo

¡ª Shridhar (@cns192231) October 12, 2019

But what happened to Sanjay Gulati could have been the most tragic. He had recently lost his job after Jet Airways shut down earlier this year. Even while 51-year-old was struggling with the loss of income, he was left with another shock after he got to know that some Rs. 90 lakhs he had deposited in four accounts in PMC Bank has an uncertain future. Like most of the account holders, Gulati was also protesting against the bank. But on Monday he died of a heart attack, hours after attending a protest by distressed customers of the bank outside a Mumbai court.

On Tuesday, another PMC Bank account holder, identified as Fattomal Punjabi, had died. His family alleged that Punjabi died of a cardiac arrest on Tuesday due to stress. He too had taken part in protests held by depositors demanding the return of their money.