Trinamool MLA’s marriage in a fix as banks refuse to provide required money

Trinamool Congress MLA from Krishnaganj Assembly constituency in Nadia landed in deep trouble after failing to withdraw money from bank for his own and his brother’s marriage due to the “hasty and arbitrary” decision of the Centre to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

The first-time MLA, Satyajit Biswas, and his brother Sumit Biswas are supposed to get married on 

the same day.

Their marriage is scheduled on November 25 and invitations of their reception on November 27 have already been distributed.

Biswas said: “I have no other way out apart from taking the required money from my close ones. The dates cannot be rescheduled as the invitation is almost complete. If an MLA has to get harassed like this, then what is the condition of a common man in this scenario when Modi government demonetised the notes without preparing any proper plan of action.”

His brother went to the bank along with his marriage card and an application to withdraw Rs 2.5 lakh from a Branch of a nationalised bank on Saturday. But the bank authorities had claimed that they were yet to receive any such notification.

“It is even more unfortunate that when it has been announced by the Centre that Rs 2.5 lakh will be given to people who have marriages, banks here are claiming that they haven’t received any circular,” Biswas said adding that, interestingly, the bank officials received all circulars apart from this on time. They had received the circular to reduce the total amount of money that can be exchanged from Rs 4,000 to Rs 2,000 on time. 

It may be mentioned that many people had faced problems on Friday when they went to bank to withdraw Rs 2.5 lakh for marriage purposes.

In such a situation, the MLA is not yet sure that whether one of the two loans for which he had applied to the local cooperative banks will get cleared. “I had applied for loans of Rs 2 lakh each in two cooperative banks. One bank informed me in the morning that the loan has been passed, but the other bank is yet to take their decision on giving the loan to me,” Biswas said adding that he had given cheques to those who were ready to accept. 

But there are usually many such expenses in a marriage for which one needs some money in cash. “Thus, I would approach the bank on Monday and would show them the marriage card to withdraw Rs 2.5 lakh from my account,” an exasperated Biswas said.