Anguish increases in India.
A three-year-old girl died and a 19-year-old college student committed suicide in the aftermath of demonetization of high-value currency notes by the Indian government.
According to a Hindustan Times report, three-year-old Ankita, who was suffering from high fever, died in front of Allahabad UP Grameen Bank in Tindwari in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh on Monday while her father was waiting in the queue to withdraw money for her treatment.
Her father Dharmendra came to the bank as the private clinic where Ankita had been admitted told her father to move her to a hospital for better treatment. NDTV reported that he couldn’t withdraw money though he went to the bank thrice in three days. Finally, he decided to line up in the queue along with his daughter as he could take her to the hospital immediately after withdrawing money.
Though there was a long queue in front of the bank, the person allowed him to go first as his daughter was in a critical condition. But, the bank manager allegedly refused to pay him money. His daughter died when he came out of the bank after begging the manager for allowing to withdraw money.
“The father says on Friday he did not get any money, on Saturday he told bank officials that his daughter was ill and yet he was not given any money,” Prahlad Singh, a senior official in Banda told NDTV.
Angry villagers protested with Ankita’s body and blocked the Banda-Fatehpur road seeking action against the bank employees who were responsible for the mishap.
Dharmendra works as a laborer in Banda, around 200 km from state capital Lucknow.
In another incident in Mawai Buzurg village in Uttar Pradesh, 19-year-old college student Suresh Prajapati killed himself after he failed to withdraw cash for paying his college fee. His father Lalloo Ram said that he wanted to withdraw Rupees 10,000 for paying college fee from the deposit of Rupees 1000 old notes made earlier. He had an argument with the bank manager as he couldn’t get the money. He hanged himself after returning home on Monday afternoon.
As much as 36 people have died while waiting in the queue after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the currency ban, on Nov. 8.
On Sunday, a 70-year-old retired school teacher died while waiting in a queue at a bank in Uttar Pradesh.
In Darbhanga, Bihar, 60-year-old Aziz Ansari collapsed after suffering a heart attack while standing in a queue last week. In Gaya district of Bihar, Lal Muni Devi, 55, and in Andhra Pradesh, Lakshminarayana, 78, died while waiting in the queue, in recent cases.