Cash pangs continue, two more die in state

HT, 3 Dec 2016, KOLKATA: Two elderly persons died while standing in a bank queue in West Bengal on Friday as people, scrambling for money across the state, battled long lines outside banks and ATMs on the second day of a new month.

There was resentment among people from different corners of the state, especially from rural pockets.

At Raidighi in South 24-Parganas, octogenarian pensioner Biswadeb Naskar, a retired schoolteacher, died of cardiac arrest in front of a nationalised bank after standing in the queue for nearly three hours. The bank at Kankandighi is at a remote area of the state.

At Machhlandapur in North 24-Parganas, septuagenarian pensioner Rabin Mukherjee suffered a cardiac arrest inside the bank after he managed to withdraw only Rs 2,600 after standing in the queue for nearly two-and a- half hours.

Earlier, 56-year-old Dharani Kanta Bhowmik of Cooch Behar district, Mohammad Cheni of Kolkata and Anil Kumar Ghosh of Hooghly district had died while standing in the queue.

“We had a word with the family members of Mukherjee and have assured them of all help in ensuring the family gets justice. The family will file a case against bank authorities, seeking compensation for the death, and we’ll go up to the apex court to get justice for the family,” state food minister and local MLA, Jyotipriyo Mullick, said.

While banking officials said the crisis has been aggravated by acute shortage of new currency notes of Rs 500 denomination, there was no indication yet when new notes would arrive.

“The government is talking about certain daily/ weekly withdrawal limits, whereas the ground reality is absolutely different. No bank in our locality is giving more than Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 a day,” said Tapas Malik, a resident of Singur in Hooghly district.

Lack of Rs 500 currency notes added to people’s trouble, as in many cases they had to accept currency notes of Rs 2000 denomination, which many are finding difficult to change. “I stood in the queue for more than an hour and got two Rs 2000 notes. It is going to take me another few hours to bring these notes to use,” Sushanta Parial, a resident of Taltala area in central Kolkata, said.

Meanwhile, obituary reference was made in the Assembly by the Speaker for those who “died due to hardship caused by demonetisation”.

Speaker Biman Banerjee after reading out accounts of the lives and work of eminent personalities said many people have died due to the “awkward situation” that has evolved due to demonetisation.