Maha: PMC depositors hold protest outside BJP office, Sitharaman meets bank consumers

Depositors of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank held protest here on Thursday outside the BJP office during the visit of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The protest continued as Sitharaman arrived at the BJP office; however same subdued after the finance minister held a meeting with the consumers of the bank.

Sitharaman met with depositors who were protesting at the BJP office to address the problem faced by them due to the ongoing issue with the PMC bank.

Confirming the meeting, office of Nirmala Sitharaman shared pictures of the meeting and tweeted, "Sitharaman meets the customers of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank in Mumbai and listens to their concerns".

Later addressing the reporters, Sitharaman said that Finance Ministry may have nothing to do with it (PMC bank matter) directly because RBI is the regulator.

"But from my side, I have asked the secretaries of my ministry to work with Rural Development Ministry and Urban Development Ministry to study in detail as to what is happening", she added.

Earlier in the day, a large number of protestors had gathered outside the BJP office to voice their concerns over the fate of PMC bank and its consumers.

Krishna, a depositor told ANI "I don't know what they are doing and I don't care what they are doing. I want my money back. I won't be able to earn again whatever I have put in the bank."

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) restricted the activities of the PMC Bank for six months after it was found the bank officials gave loans to Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) between 2008 and 2019 despite no repayment of the previous loans.

The Central bank has said the directions were necessitated on account of major financial irregularities, failure of the internal control system of the bank and wrong or under-reporting of its exposures under various off-site surveillance reports.

PMC Bank is a multi-state scheduled urban cooperative bank with operations in Maharashtra, New Delhi, Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. With a network of 137 branches, it ranks among the top 10 cooperative banks in the country.