Tuesday, Dec 13, 2016
Kolkata: Call it a reel to life story, a slum dweller in the southern fringes of the city has become a millionaire overnight with over Rs. 6 million in her bank account that she did not know about.
On Monday, Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials came to inquire about the women who had deposited Rs. 6 million in her bank account post November 8, when the demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes were announced by the government.
To the horror of the officials, the woman is a daughter of a daily wage labourer whose father’s monthly income never crossed Rs6,500. “We had lot of trouble locating the shanty in which she lived. She was not even aware that she had a bank account neither did her father. It was quite understandable that someone has used her documents to open a Jan Dhan Account with a scheduled bank and then used it to deposit the sum of money post demonetisation,” said an investigating officer.
Jan Dhan Account is a financial inclusion scheme of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi where people from lower economic group can open bank accounts with ‘zero balance’ and will be offered a debit card for the same.
Officials investigating the case though refuse to give further details of the woman who has suddenly become millionaire sighting privacy rules they though believe that this Jan Dhan scheme has been misused from the very beginning where touts have opened bank accounts even without the knowledge of the individuals.
Many argue that this whole demonetisation process has brought in hardship for the informal sector of the economy which employees over 60 per cent of the labour force. “First they were losing their jobs as there is an overall slowdown in the economy. now these poor illiterate people will be harassed by these investigating officials for these cases for which they will have to run pillar to post and the prime minister is claiming that he has done this for the poor,” said Trinamool Congress general secretary and state minister Partha Chatterjee.
Similar complaints were heard from others who had been forced to use their accounts by their employers and are now under investigations. “I work as a labourer in construction projects. My supervisor handed me Rs250,000 and asked me to issue cheques of Rs230,000. If I had refused I would have lost my job. Now the bank officials are investigating me and I am standing in front of various officers without understanding anything,” said Salim Khan, a daily wage labourer.
Bank officials say that though they understand the plight of these poor people, they have very little to do as the investigations are being monitored by the highest office. “We find ourselves in a very tight condition as we are being criticised for investigating. While there is huge pressure on us to show results within two weeks,” said an officer unwilling to be named.
By Archisman Dinda Correspondent
Gulf News 2016. All rights reserved.
