Members of the BHEL Thrift and Credit Co-operative Society in Bhopal staged a protest outside the SBI HET Branch on Friday, expressing anger over the freezing of their bank accounts. The society officials said that more than 4,000 customers have been affected due to freeze imposed on their bank account.
Deepak Gupta, one of the society’s directors, said that the BHEL Thrift Society is a reputed co-operative organization that regularly provides financial assistance to its members for purposes such as medical emergencies, education, and marriage. However, SBI had arbitrarily placed the society’s accounts under partial hold, which has disrupted the financial support provided to members.
Five directors had initially raised objections on September 22 at SBI’s HET branch, but the issue was ignored. The society’s manager also submitted clarifications and provided all necessary documents, yet SBI’s response remained unsatisfactory, leading to Friday’s protest.
Along with the demonstration, the members submitted a memorandum demanding the immediate reactivation of the frozen accounts and urging the bank to remove the hold and resolve the issue.
Directors Gupta, Nishant Nanda, and Rajkumar Idpachi informed the members that the bank’s action was negatively affecting the functioning of the society. They assured members that they were ready to continue their struggle to protect the interests of the society and its members.