70-year-old man dies waiting in queue to withdraw money for daughter’s wedding.
In another tragic incident following the chaos after the central government’s demonetization of high denomination currencies, a 70-year-old retired school teacher died while waiting in a queue at a bank in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.
Raghunath Verma waited in the queue for eight hours before he collapsed in front of State Bank of India’s Madhogarh branch, reported The Hindustan Times. According to the report, Verma had gone to withdraw money for his daughter’s wedding.
According to the report, Verma had gone to the bank three consecutive days and spoken to the bank manager to help him withdraw the money as he was in urgent need of it to make arrangements for his daughter’s wedding. But, he had to wait in the queue as the manager refused to help him.
“We needed Rs. 2 lakh for the marriage expenses. My father went to the bank for three days. He had spoken to the bank manager many times asking him to help with the withdrawal and exchange. The manager did not listen to him,” Verma’s son Ravi Verma said.
“My father was restless when I spoke to him over the phone. There was so much to do. He was worried to carry on with the marriage as we were unable to meet the expenses. This decision of the government has been a double whammy, my sister’s marriage has been postponed and we have lost our father,” he added.
The Times of India reported that three people died across India in the past two days while waiting in the queue at bank branches for exchanging banned currency notes of Rupees 500 and 1000.
In Darbhanga, Bihar, 60-year-old Aziz Ansari collapsed after suffering a heart attack while standing in a queue. In Gaya district of Bihar, Lal Muni Devi, 55, and in Andhra Pradesh, Lakshminarayana, 78, died while waiting in the queue.
A farmer tried to set himself ablaze himself in Ghaziabad in front of a bank as he didn’t have money to consult a doctor on Tuesday. The death toll has reportedly increased to 33 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetization of high-value notes.