Affected by PMC bank restrictions, many threaten to boycott upcoming Assembly polls

A group of people affected by the cash withdrawal restrictions of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank has threatened to boycott the upcoming Assembly elections if the issue is not resolved.

Many PMC Bank account holders have put up a picture addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on their social media accounts reading: "I will not vote on October 21 if the PMC bank crisis is not completely resolved in favour of the depositors."

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had, on Thursday, increased the withdrawal limit from Rs 1,000 to 10,000 after several account holders gathered outside the Sion branch of the bank in Mumbai.

"The relaxation has been granted with a view to reducing the hardship of depositors. The RBI is closely monitoring the position and will continue to take further steps as are necessary to safeguard the interest of depositors," RBI said in a statement.

On Monday, the central bank had restricted activities of PMC Bank for six months capping the withdrawals at Rs 1,000 per account and asked the bank to not grant or renew any loans and advances, make any investment or incur any liability, including borrowing of funds and acceptance of deposits.

RBI said the directions were necessitated on account of major financial irregularities, failure of internal control and systems of the bank and wrong or under-reporting of its exposures under various off-site surveillance reports.

The RBI has also sacked the bank's board of directors under sub-sections 1 and 2 of Section 36 AAA read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act 1949. An administrator has been appointed to take charge.

PMC Bank is a multi-state scheduled urban cooperative bank with operations in Maharashtra, New Delhi, Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. With a network of 137 branches, it ranks among the top 10 cooperative banks in the country.

-ANI

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