Last rites hit as bank refuses cash in bulk

KOLKATA: Sanchita Shrestha knew that RBI had relaxed norms for weddings, allowing Rs 2.5-lakh cash withdrawal against production of invitation cards. She had hoped banks would take an equally compassionate view of deaths. Her friend and colleague at Pratt Memorial School, Trisha Chatterjee, had just lost her mother and was in urgent need of cash to perform the last rites.
But when Shrestha went to the bank on Monday with the death certificate of Berlyn Allen, Trisha's mother, her plea was turned down. “I am very shocked that Mr Narendra Modi has only thought of those getting married and not about the dying or dead,“ said Shrestha, adding that her friend had exhausted all the cash she had in the treatment of her 87-year-old mother, who died on Saturday. Sanchita Shrestha said, “We wanted to with draw Rs 50,000 from Mrs Allen's own account at Indian Overseas Bank, Pratt Memorial Branch.But the banker told me that the limit of weekly withdrawal of Rs 24,000 was already exhausted.
So any further withdrawal was not possible. I told him the urgency, showed him the death certificate, but it was of no use,“ The bank officials said they understood the problem of the deceased's family, but there were severe restrictions on withdrawal. Since no other bulk withdrawal is allowed besides marriage, any violation would be tantamount to an economic offence, they explained.
“I found it ridiculous. The government must understand that a wedding can be postponed, not death. Why can't I withdraw money that I have in my account for an occasion that has immense emotional consequence?“ she asked.
In her 35-year-long career as a teacher in the school, Shrestha said she has never faced such a problem. “We have our salary accounts in this branch. It was set up on the campus when my mother Bibi Ghosh was the principal of the school. Since then, banking has been seamless.That is, till now,“ she said.
“It is embarrassing to borrow money from friends and relatives when everyone is facing a cash crunch,“ she added.