Cash crunchy K S F E

A senior citizen would think hereinafter, not twice, but thrice to put his hard earned money as FD with Kerala State Financial Enterprise Branch. It took three days for me to receive the pay out for a matured FD for Rs 50000 with the Enterprise. They permit only a maximum withdrawal of Rs 20000 in a day. If a man has Rs 10 lakh with KSFE as FD he has to walk almost a month to get back the amount in full. And if the money is intended for the marriage of his daughter he should fix a date after counting this lapse. Of course, the company asks its client to cooperate, may be because it is in a cash crunchy condition.

However, spending lavishly the Enterprise is on its way to modernisation. All the existing counters have been demolished and the employees of Cherthala main branch sit with their mouth and nostrils covered with hankie to save themselves from dust produced from modernisation. I wonder why ordinary citizens put their money with KSFE for an interest of 7.5% when the rural Co-operative banks issues 10% interest to senior citizens. May be due to the fact that Minister Thomas Isaac owned KSFE is a safer place to bank upon than Minister Sudhakarn owned Cooperative banks.

And, of course, these places are better than new generation banks where the money deposited dwindle due to some computer generated programmes incomprehensible to ordinary folks. An old woman who deposited Rs 10000 in Lord Krishna Bank, turned Centurion Bank of Punjab turned HDFC bank here when contacted after three years stood enthralled to hear that she has only Rs 7000 in her account. When asked about, the man in the counter elucidated not so courteously to the old woman that it is a computer generated programme to deduct Rs 1000 in a year from an inactive account and pointing to a cabin said: “there is a bulky man with a necktie, sleeping in the cabin and in case of any complaint ask him”.

K A Solaman