Satiya Devi, a homemaker from Farka village in Sabour block of Bhagalpur, has been running around since August 9, when the fund-transfer scam came to light, to withdraw the Rs 20,000 she has in her account with the Srijan Mahila Bank. She has not been able to meet anyone who can assure her that her meagre savings are safe.
Ranu Devi of Maa Kali Self-Help Group said for the last four years her group used to deposit Rs 200 per month with the Srijan Mahila Bank. "We need the money now but after the bank was closed, whom do we go to with our complaint?" she asked.
Satiya and Ranu were among the scores of women who gathered on Tuesday outside the locked office of the Srijan Mahila Sahyog Samiti Ltd, the NGO that used to run the bank and which is in the centre of the probe into the fund-transfer scam, in Sabour, around 251km east of Patna.
They demanded the return of their money which they had deposited with the bank.
Many women narrated how they used to deposit Rs 10 every week and used to take loan on 20 per cent rate of interest.
"Last year I applied for a loan of Rs 20,000 but since only Rs 15,000 was deposited in my account in the bank I was granted a loan of Rs 10 thousand," said Hira Devi of Ghogha.
Srijan Mahila Bank has more than 6,000 such women self-help group customers, as revealed during the probe by the special investigation team (SIT).
The bank was exclusively for rural women's self-help groups but after the scam surfaced, it has come to light that the bank used to function beyond its purview.
Mohammad Sarfuddin of Sabour opened a fixed-deposit of Rs 1 lakh in December 2015 with the bank, and the maturity date was December 2018.
"Recently, before the scam was exposed, I came here to withdraw the amount as I needed it. I was denied by the bank; they were ready to give me only Rs 49,000," he said.
Similarly, thanks to Srijan, more than 50 senior citizens at English Farka village have not got their state government old-age pension of Rs 400 per month for the last two years. "Earlier we used to collect our pension through our accounts with the bank but for the last two years whenever we went there, the people at the bank told us that due to lack of government allotments, funds were not available for the old-age pension," said Shanker Yadav of English Farka village.
Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Ltd has over Rs 18 crore in its account that the SIT has frozen, said Bhagalpur district magistrate Adesh Titarmare. He said efforts are on to return the amount of the bona fide customers - read rural women self-help groups.
Action would be initiated against unauthorised customers of the bank who took huge loans running into crores from the bank, he added.
The women's bank, which is registered with the state cooperatives department, cannot give loans of more than Rs 50,000 - and that too, only to rural women's groups.
"Officials of the district cooperative department have started scrutiny of all accounts and hopefully we will soon be able to return the money of the rural women customers of the bank," Titarmare told reporters.
Pappu wades in
Madhepura MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav addressed the gathering of women outside the Srijan office, and declared that he would recover their money from the bank for them. He accused chief minister Nitish Kumar of protecting the "influential people such as politicians and bureaucrats" involved in the scam. He said the Supreme Court should monitor the CBI probe into the scam. If the government failed to return the women's money, he would ensure they got their dues, he declared. His Jan Adhikar Party staged a day-long demonstration at the Sabour block office against the scam.
