Trinamul shuts down cashless post office

Trinamul demonstrators at the Harirampur post office on Tuesday.
(Shantanu Misra)

PINAK PANI CHOWDHURY, TT, Balurghat, Nov. 22: Around 200 people with Trinamul flags today shut down a post office in South Dinajpur to protest the unavailability of cash there since November 19, the first instance of political muscle-flexing in Bengal in the season of demonetisation. The Trinamul activists who locked the main gate of the post office in Harirampur, about 72km from Balurghat town, were led by Trinamul zilla parishad member Subhasish Paul.

From noon till 2.30pm, the group shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing his government of harassing common people.

"There is no money in the post office over the past three days and the customers are suffering," Paul said.

He said the Harirampur area had lots of poor people. "Most of them hold savings accounts in the post office. There are small traders and farmers who have to pay in cash to buy goods," Paul said.

Dabirul Islam, who is a trader in vegetables in a local market, was among the agitators. He said: "The crunch has already hit traders like us. Our buyers are unable to purchase anything and this has had an overall negative impact on trading. We are close to being ruined."

Sources said the post office has around 15,000 customers.

Paul later spoke to postmaster Ashutosh Sarkar and threatened continuous agitation.

Sarkar assured the protesters that money would be sent from the head post office in Balurghat soon and the situation would improve after which the group disbanded. The superintendent of the head post office, Najmul Haque Choudhury, said: "Rs 2 lakh has been sent to Harirampur post office today."

When told about the protest, Shankar Chakrabarty, the South Dinajpur Trinamul president, said he support the protest. "People all across the country are facing harassment because of Modi's decision," he said.

But urban development minister Firhad Hakim sounded caution. He said the chief minister "does not support such acts."

Yesterday, two rural banks in Cooch Behar had downed shutters when they ran out of cash. Angry customers of the two branches of the Uttarbanga Kshetriya Gramin Bank blocked roads.

Ismail Miyan, who had come to draw money for the treatment of his one-month-old grandson admitted to a hospital with jaundice, was among those who had to return home without money yesterday. "We queued up early in the morning. When the bank opened, the staff said there was not much cash and each of us could be given Rs 1,000 each. We protested. I told the staff I wanted cash for my grandson's treatment. Soon after that, the staff closed the bank and left," he said. "What will I do with just Rs 1,000?"

In Behatguri, where one of the branches is located, Satya Gope had lined up to take money for his daughter's wedding on Friday. He returned empty-handed. "I have not managed to get cash since yesterday. I thought I would manage something today and queued up at 7am. But the bank staff said that there was no cash"

Additional reporting by Main Uddin Chisti in Cooch Behar