PMC Bank collapse: 130 employees protest outside residence of HDIL promoters

A team of senior PMC bank employees, who met HDIL vice-chairman and managing director Sarang Wadhavan, said the latter assured them that he was working to resolve the issue at the earliest.

“We took a late night decision to try and meet HDIL representatives. As we wanted to be at work on time, we went around 5 am and returned in time for the 8 am shift,” said Chief Manager Kamaljeet Kaur Banwait, posted at the Bhandup branch of the bank.

“Five of us went in to meet Sarang Wadhavan, and he immediately said he is working on chalking out a plan. He said he will meet the administrator and present his plan of action,” said Banwait, who led the protest at Union Park, Khar.

Later in the day, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam led a delegation of bank depositors to the bank’s central administrative office in Bhandup. The delegation demanded a further relaxation in withdrawal limits, permission to withdraw savings account deposits at will in case of weddings, hospitalisation and student admissions. They also demanded that permissions be given to residential cooperative housing societies to undertake banking transactions, and FIRs be loged against the bank’s management.

BJP vice-president Kirit Somaiyya, who on Thursday took up the matter with Union MoS for Finance Anurag Thakur, said: “The bank has given huge loans to an industrial house, which has lead to its bankruptcy. We demanded probe and action against the defaulters.” Although the RBI raised the withdrawal limit to Rs 10,000 on Thursday, he said their demand is that it should be raised to Rs 1 lakh.