On Thursday, the government announced that families which have marriages coming up can withdraw up to 2.5 lakh from their bank accounts. The idea was to provide relief to the public with the marriage season at .
But are banks allowing the 'marriage withdrawals’? The Quint finds out.
I accompanied my colleague Sahasranshu Mahapatra, who is getting married this month, to the ICICI bank branch in Noida’s Sector 18, where he has an account. We were immediately stopped at the gate of the bank. When we informed the bank staffer that we have come for a ‘marriage withdrawal’, we were given an excuse immediately.
After we persistently requested him to allow us inside the bank so that we can talk to the bank manager, he let us in.
We then met a second bank employee. We told him that we urgently needed money as the marriage is scheduled this month. In response, we got a curt reply.
We informed him that the RBI has already sent out a circular to all banks about the ‘marriage withdrawals’. We also showed him a copy of the circular. Left speechless on seeing the circular, he directed us to a third bank employee.
The Quint has accessed the circular sent to all banks on the so-called marriage withdrawals. This is what it says:
Then, a third bank staffer came up with yet another excuse.
In no time, this employee disappeared. We then spoke to a fourth staffer who told us that the upper limit for withdrawal was still fixed at Rs 24,000.
Soon, a woman employee joined us and said that the RBI had not yet sent the guidelines to the banks for ‘marriage withdrawals’. Without these, she said, banks cannot allow it. She requested us to leave behind our contact numbers.
After spending almost an hour and speaking to several bank staffers, we couldn’t withdraw money. From “no cash” to “no withdrawal format” to “no RBI circular”, all kinds of excuses were given to us by the bank.
We next visited the Indian Bank branch in Noida’s Sector 18 to find out whether they are allowing the ‘marriage withdrawals’. But here too we were turned down on the ground that “the RBI has not updated the system”.
So, after doing the rounds of banks and meeting scores of employees, we could not manage to make a ‘marriage withdrawal’.
The government may have promised to ease the troubles faced by families with upcoming marriages. But clearly, the plan is not being implemented by banks and the public’s suffering continue.
Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam
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